By Adam Baskin: Terence Crawford says he will retire while he’s still at the top of his game because he doesn’t want to hang around until he is forced to retire like many fighters.
As many witnessed recently, Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) is still in top form, stopping three-belt welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr last month.
After that performance, Crawford found overnight fame, and some boxing fans would like to see him hang around long enough to defeat Jaron Boots Ennis, Jermell Charlo, Canelo Alvarez, and David Benavidez.
Americans would prefer to see Crawford fight Boots Ennis over Tszyu, but Terence doesn’t want to fight him. Boots hasn’t won a belt yet, and his resume is thin.
That said, Tszyu hasn’t won an actual title either, but he’ll soon be elevated to WBO 154-lb champion next month when Jermell is stripped by the World Boxing Organization for fighting Canelo instead of his mandatory.
It doesn’t seem likely that Crawford will continue his career long enough to fight those four guys because he fights only once a year, which means he would be around 40 years old by the time he finished fighting those four fighters.
At best, Crawford will fight three or four more times against these fighters and then retire:
- Errol Spence Jr – rematch
- Tim Tszyu
- Jermell Charlo
- Canelo Alvarez
The fight with Jermell would be contingent on him losing his match against Canelo on September 30th. If Jermell wins, he won’t be interested in taking a huge pay cut by returning to 154 to fight Crawford.
The money Jermell can make fighting Canelo in a rematch would be huge, dwarfing what he’d get facing Crawford.
“I’m healthy as can be, I probably can fight until I’m like 45, but I always said I want to retire from boxing; I never wanted boxing to retire me,” said Terence Crawford to BreakfastClubAM.
“I always looked at old fighters and felt bad; they can’t hold a conversation because of the damage they’ve accumulated. I never want to be like that. I want to be able to tell my story without somebody else telling it because I can’t speak. I’m going to retire on top,” said Crawford.
Hearn says Crawford hasn’t been promoted
“You build a fighter’s narrative. If you’re not telling the story, and it’s not even hard to tell that story, it should just be absolutely a stroll in the park for a promoter to come in and say, ‘Look at this kid, and like he’s an outstanding talent. He beats Charlo, he beats Spence at 154, and it’s all up there with him,'” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV about Crawford.
“His abilities are unbelievable. He thinks he’s unbeatable, and that goes a long way. You know he’s an outstanding fighter.”