Terence Crawford Announces Retirement

[Ruthless-RKO]

TERENCE CRAWFORD RETIRES

The five-division champion has announced his retirement from the sport at age 38 with a perfect record of 42-0

‘Bud’ walks away as the only fighter to win a Ring title in four separate weight classes

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

[MightyWarrior]

Ever since we saw him outclass Ricky Burns, Bud has looked like the unbeatable fighter - Floyd probably would’ve somehow scraped a points win, maybe, but it’s a shame he never really had the huge test in his career, like a Duran or Leonard - i mean being honest, canelo was way past it and Spence was shot to hell after the car wreck.

[black panther]

Ever since we saw him outclass Ricky Burns, Bud has looked like the unbeatable fighter - Floyd probably would’ve somehow scraped a points win, maybe, but it’s a shame he never really had the huge test in his career, like a Duran or Leonard - i mean being honest, canelo was way past it and Spence was shot to hell after the car wreck.

Agreed undeniable talent but didn't get a good dance partner in his prime to prove his greatness.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Many will blame his long association with Top Rank and unable to get fights outside of the promotion.

Majority 147'ers were with PBC.

He could have had Thurman, Danny Garcia, Spence (earlier) amongst others on his resume.

Porter was still a good fighter right until he retired. so that was a good win.

shame he never got Pac whilst at Top Rank.

Wonder if EO will come out.. he always had a lot to say about Bud's contract

[Kilburn]

Good luck to him, at 38 it’s only going to get harder from here. He’s had things all his own way, all throughout his career, no sense in changing that now.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Assuming they go by the current rankings and don’t wait for him, the title picture looks like:

WBA: Interim champion Jose Armando Resendiz either upgraded or ordered to fight Bektemir Melikuziev.

WBO: With no. 2 Hamzah Sheeraz occupied, Diego Pacheco vs Jacob Bank would be in play if Bank beats William Scull next month.

IBF: Osleys Iglesias is owed a shot, presumably against Jaime Munguia or Callum Simpson.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Terence Crawford, 38, Retires From Boxing Three Months After Beating Canelo Alvarez

The biggest win of Terence Crawford’s Hall of Fame career apparently was satisfying enough for him to walk away from boxing fulfilled.

Crawford, 38, announced his retirement Tuesday in a video posted on YouTube, in which the undefeated five-division champion paid homage to his legendary journey from obscurity in Omaha, Nebraska to the pinnacle of the sport. The three-division undisputed champ expressed interest in continuing his career after he defeated Canelo Alvarez by unanimous decision September 13 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and would’ve commanded another eight-figure purse for his next fight.

Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) noted that retirement was also an option after he won The Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles from Alvarez in a fight watched by more than 40 million viewers worldwide on Netflix. Eddy Reynoso, the Mexican superstar’s trainer and manager, said recently that Alvarez wanted a rematch with Crawford in September after taking time to heal from hand surgery and to rest.

Barring a change of heart, which often occurs in boxing, Alvarez won’t get a chance to avenge his loss.

“Every fighter know this moment will come,” Crawford said in the abovementioned video. “We just never know when. I used to spend my whole life chasing something. Not belts, not money, not headlines, but that feeling, the one you get when the world doubts you. But you keep showing up and you keep proving everyone wrong.”

Continuously fueled by detractors who at times questioned his level of opposition, Crawford cemented his legacy as a generational great by beating Alvarez and former unified welterweight champ Errol Spence Jr. in two of his final three bouts. Two years before he moved up two weight classes and beat Alvarez in their 12-rounder, Crawford dominated a then-unbeaten Spence, whom he dropped three times and stopped in the ninth round to become undisputed welterweight champ in July 2023 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

His clear victory over the supposedly stronger Alvarez propelled Crawford to the top spot on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list and made him a fully unified champion in a third weight class. Crawford was recently stripped of the WBC 168-pound crown, but he is the only male boxer to become undisputed champion in three weight classes during the four-belt era.

Before beating Spence and Alvarez, Crawford was crowned undisputed champ in the junior welterweight division when he knocked out Julius Indongo in the third round of their August 2017 bout in Lincoln, Nebraska. He won world titles at lightweight and junior middleweight as well during a career that began amid minimal fanfare in March 2008.

Seventeen years later, the father of seven retired undefeated, with his health and wealth intact. Crawford emphasized that leaving boxing on his own terms factored into his decision.

“This sport gave me everything,” Crawford concluded. “I fought for my family, I fought for my city, I fought for the kid I used to be – the one who had nothing but a dream and a pair of gloves. And I did it all my way.”

[JamesPhilips]

Good on him. Hope he sticks with it

[big lennox]

Here's to a happy and healthy retirement. A quality fighter and a class act.

[NazNaci1]

Top quality fighter and yeah, 38 with not much out there and, hopefully, lots of money, it is a good call.

Unfair and unrealistic that he would take on Bivol, Beterbiev or Benavidez. So better to call it, imo.

Good luck.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Don't doubt Terence Crawford, even in his retirement from boxing

An all-time great fighter, though one who has just come into his financial prime, announces his retirement, leaving, say, another $100 million on the table.

I know what you're thinking.

Don't.

Don't doubt Terence Crawford. It's what fueled him all these years. It's what made him the undisputed champion at 140, 147 and 168 pounds. It's what made him the greatest fighter on the planet (no disrespect to Oleksandr Usyk, for whom a case can also be made). And now, in violation of almost every boxing convention, it's allowed him to retire on his own terms, undefeated at the very top of the game, coming off his signature win.

The only other guy I've known to do that -- and stay retired -- is the great Andre Ward, who left in 2017 after consecutive wins over the erstwhile light heavyweight boogeyman, Sergey Kovalev.

"What strikes me the most about where Terence is, the place that I was fortunate enough to get to -- with your legacy, your faculties and your fortune intact -- is that you've defeated the greatest opponent any fighter could face, an opponent that has defeated many of the greatest fighters ever to live," Ward told me Tuesday night. "You have defeated the sport itself. You have defeated the doubters, injury, praise and criticism. You have overcome risk: that single punch that can change your legacy and your life. This is rare air. You've beaten boxing."

Boxing is full of traps, starting with the fighter's ego. The same ego that first made you great keeps you coming back as a diminished version of yourself. Beyond that, the game itself is all but rigged, favoring the bigger man against the smaller one, younger versus older, the so-called A-side fighter who generates the lion's share of the revenue over everyone else. At 38 years old, Crawford, a guy who had spent most of his career south of 147 pounds, was none of those things when matched against Canelo Alvarez in September. Canelo wasn't merely the undisputed 168-pound champion then, but also boxing's most lucrative attraction. Yet Crawford's historic victory was even more one-sided than the unanimous scorecards would have you believe.

And it all goes back to this double-sided notion of money and doubt. For a generation of fighters, some of them truly excellent, though not great, fighting Canelo had come to represent the score of a lifetime. For Crawford, however, Canelo became his "white whale," an existential corrective for every doubter at every juncture of his career. And there were a lot.

"That's the only fight I want," Crawford told Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the Saudi Arabian general entertainment authority, who bankrolled the Canelo fight.

At the time, Alalshikh was keener on matching Crawford with Jaron "Boots" Ennis or Vergil Ortiz Jr., both undefeated superstars at 154 pounds. Crawford wouldn't hear of it, though.

"Boots is not a megafight," he told me in September. "Vergil Ortiz is not a megafight. This is the tail end of my career. They're going to say, 'You were supposed to win.' I want Canelo Alvarez."

If you didn't think he could beat Canelo then, maybe now you'll think better. Crawford will stay retired -- if only because the boxing odds are always on a comeback. Doubt him if you must, just remember when it comes to doubters, Crawford is undefeated. Before Canelo, there were those who thought he would never beat Errol Spence Jr., whose career he ended. There were those at his former promotional company, Top Rank, who, in fairness, signed him when no other big promoter would, came to think he would never be much of an attraction.

Crawford had doubters at every division, going back to the amateurs. Though in retrospect, you have to wonder why, given his amateur victory over a young fighter as gifted as Mikey Garcia. Crawford was doubted for being from Omaha, Nebraska, which was nowhere on the boxing map until he put it there.

Crawford was doubted by the local cops. By the kids on the corner. By some of his teachers. But mostly, and most famously, by his own mother, Miss Debra.

On the eve of his first title fight 11 years ago, Crawford found himself as an underdog a long way from home, facing a Scottish champion named Ricky Burns in Glasgow. Before her son left for Scotland, Miss Debra offered her usual prefight pep talk. "You ain't s---," she told her son. "Gonna get your ass kicked."

"I knew it's gonna stick in his head," she told me in 2018. "And he's gonna go over there and whup some ass."

In fact, that's what happened: a little-known fighter traveling continents to win a unanimous decision in the champion's backyard. That's how it started, his long, undefeated title run.

Looking back, though, I think differently of Miss Debra. Mike Tyson has a theory about great warriors, beginning with Alexander the Great, that they're all mama's boys. "That's why Alexander kept pushing forward," Tyson once said. "He didn't want to have to go home and be dominated by his mother."

By that standard, the Crawford matriarch is right up there with Olympus herself.

Thank you, Miss Debra.

Thank you, Terence.

It was a pleasure. It was challenging. It was an honor.

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ezzard]

Best I've seen at welterweght since the Leonard-Hearns-Duran era.

[Taansend]

In the Bud v Floyd debate I think Bud wins anywhere but Vegas where Floyd was the Celine Dion of Boxing.

Crawford would have been competitive in any era. What a fighter.

[KiwiRider]

Ever since we saw him outclass Ricky Burns, Bud has looked like the unbeatable fighter - Floyd probably would’ve somehow scraped a points win, maybe, but it’s a shame he never really had the huge test in his career, like a Duran or Leonard - i mean being honest, canelo was way past it and Spence was shot to hell after the car wreck.

Agreed undeniable talent but didn't get a good dance partner in his prime to prove his greatness.

X3.
He could have also been a bit busier and finished 50-0. Once he beat Burns, there hasn't been another challenger he would have lost to. Hopefully he's made enough to retire comfortably

[SeanBrennan]

Fair play to him. Unified, made a huge amount in last fight, told WBC to jog on and retired at the top.

[johnmanchester]

I think stuff like this is going to gradually put an end to Turki interest in boxing.

Fury-Joshua 1 and 2 will be a big finale moment for him, plus stuff like Crawford retiring, Canelo will retire, Beterbiev, Bivol etc.

There's not really a big new generation waiting to step into those shoes. I think his interest will wane a couple of years from now if not earlier.

[Coco]

ATG

[dookus]

ATG

100%. Maybe the best timing I've ever seen

[Ruthless-RKO]

I think stuff like this is going to gradually put an end to Turki interest in boxing.

Fury-Joshua 1 and 2 will be a big finale moment for him, plus stuff like Crawford retiring, Canelo will retire, Beterbiev, Bivol etc.

There's not really a big new generation waiting to step into those shoes. I think his interest will wane a couple of years from now if not earlier.

He really did back Bud. And I’m glad he did.

Shame it was right at the very end of his career.

As long as other boxers perform, we’ll see the younger boxers I believe.