Terence Crawford won more than a fight when he stunned Canelo Alvarez.
He won over the boxing community and sports fans who hardly knew him. Not just for the skill he showed in the boxing ring during the Sept. 13 mega-fight, but for the engaging personality he showed while making the rounds after becoming the undisputed super middleweight champion.
What a shame he decided to sully his reputation Wednesday, Dec. 3.
From inside a car, Crawford spewed profanity and delivered low blows in a rant against Mauricio Sulaimán, president of the WBC, one of boxing’s four sanctioning bodies.
Crawford fumed after the WBC stripped him of the championship belt he won from Alvarez. But it seemed like a very reasonable thing to do considering Crawford acknowledged he had not paid the WBC its $300,000 sanctioning fee.
The four sanctioning bodies charge a fee of about 3% of the purse. In turn, the bodies sanction fights with their respective championship belts at stake. In cases such as the fight between Crawford and Alvarez, several or all four of the sanctioning bodies can sanction the same fight, which allows boxers to fight for the undisputed championship.
Crawford and other boxers have questioned where the money goes. In a 2022 interview with Boxing Scene, Sulaimán cited overhead expenses, humanitarian work and developments in women’s boxing as reasons the WBC charges 3% for sanctioning fees. “What we do, everything goes back to boxing,” he said then.
This is not a blanket defense of the sanctioning bodies. But Crawford’s behavior can’t be defended, either.
It’s his right to object to a fee or even negotiate something lower. But for a boxer regarded as honorable, he handled it in disappointing fashion.
The clearly better option: to acknowledge before the fight he had no intention of paying the fees – and suffer the consequences.
It’s highly unlikely the WBC would have sanctioned the fight and made its belt available to Crawford without his agreeing to pay the fee.
That might seem inconsequential, especially the way Crawford degraded Sulaimán and the WBC belt during his rant. But Crawford wanted the undisputed super middleweight championship, and he captured it by winning all four belts – from the IBF, WBA, WBO and, yes, WBC.
But there he was Wednesday, behind the wheel of his truck, spewing venom in a shockingly different way than we’d come to know the easy-to-root-for-boxer, who proved charming outside of the ring.
At 38, Crawford is in the twilight of his career and no longer needs the WBC.
But there was no need to taint his own reputation.
