One of the greatest fighters of all time, albeit one who has just arrived at his financial peak, announced his retirementThat’s, say, leaving another $100 million on the table.
I know what you’re thinking.
No.
don’t doubt Terence CrawfordThis provided him energy for so many years, This made him the undisputed champion at 140, 147 and 168 pounds, This made him the greatest fighter on the planet (no disrespect), oleksandr usykFor which a case can also be made). And now, violating almost every boxing tradition, he has been allowed to retire on his own terms, remaining undefeated at the top of the sport. Coming out of my signed victory,
The only other person I know to do this and stay retired is the great Andre Ward, who left in 2017 Following back-to-back wins over former light heavyweight boogeyman, Sergei Kovalev.
Ward told me Tuesday night, “Terrence is where I was fortunate to be – with your legacy, your abilities and your destiny intact – the thing that impresses me most is that you have defeated the greatest opponent any fighter could have faced, an opponent who has defeated many of the greatest fighters of all time.” “You have defeated the sport itself. You have defeated the doubters, the injuries, the praise and the criticism. You have overcome the risk: the one punch that could change your legacy and your life. It is rarefied air. You have defeated boxing.”
Boxing is full of traps, starting with the ego of the fighter. The same ego that made you great in the first place brings you back as a diminished version of itself. Furthermore, the game is completely rigged, favoring the bigger guy versus the smaller guy, the so-called A-side fighter who generates the lion’s share of revenue over everyone else. At 38 years old, Crawford, a man who had spent most of his career hovering around 147 pounds, was none of those things when he was matched up against canelo alvarez on September. Canelo was then not only the undisputed 168-pound champion, but also boxing’s hottest attraction. Yet Crawford’s historic victory was more one-sided than the unanimous scorecard would lead you to believe.
And it all goes back to this dual-sided notion of money and doubt. For a generation of fighters, some of them truly excellent, though not great, fighting Canelo came to represent the score of a lifetime. However, for Crawford, Canelo became his “White Whale”, an existential corrective to every doubter at every turn of his career. And there were many more.
“This is the only fight I want,” Crawford told Turki Alalshaikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, which financed the Canelo fight.
At the time, Alalshikh was keen to compare Crawford to Jaron “Boots” Ennis or Virgil Ortiz Jr., both undefeated superstars at 154 pounds. However, Crawford would not have heard of it.
“Boots ain’t no megafight,” they told me in september“Virgil Ortiz is not a megafight, This is the last stop of my career, They’re going to say, ‘You should have won,’ I want Canelo Alvarez,”
If you didn’t think he could beat Canelo then, you might think better now. Crawford will remain retired – if only because boxing prospects are always on the back burner. If you must doubt him, remember, Crawford is undefeated when it comes to doubters. Before Canelo, there were people who thought he would never beat Errol Spence Jr.Whose career he ended. There were people at his former promotional company, Top Rank, who, in fairness, signed him when no other big promoter had signed him, feeling that he would never be much of a hit.
Crawford had doubts in every division, if we talk about amateurs. Although looking back, you have to wonder why this happened, considering his amateur victories over a talented young fighter like Mikey Garcia. Crawford was suspected to be from Omaha, Nebraska, which was nowhere on the boxing map until it put him there.
The local police were suspicious of Crawford. 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 an underdog far from home when facing a Scottish champion called Ricky Burns in Glasgow. Before her son left for Scotland, Miss Debra offered him the usual prefight pep talk. “You’re not a—,” he told his son. “I’ll fuck your ass.”
“I knew it would stick in his mind,” he told me in 2018“And he’s going to go out there and beat up some people,”
In fact, that’s what happened: a little-known fighter traveling across continents to win a unanimous decision in the champion’s backyard. Thus began his long, undefeated title run.
However, looking back, I think differently about Miss Debra. Mike Tyson has a theory about great warriors, starting with Alexander the Great, that they are all mama’s boys. Tyson once said, “That’s why Alexander kept going.” “He didn’t want to have to go home and overpower his mom.”
By that standard, the Crawford matriarch is right on top of Olympus herself.
Thank you, Miss Debra.
Thanks, Terence.
it was a pleasure. It was challenging. It was an honour.
