Above: Terence Crawford staked his claim at 154 pounds by defeating Israil Madrimov for the WBA title. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

TERENCE CRAWFORD’S PHENOMENAL RISE CRUSHED HIS DOUBTERS LONG AGO, BUT THE MULTI-DIVISION CHAMPION FROM OMAHA SAYS THERE’S EVEN MORE AMAZEMENT TO COME

At soon-to-be 37 years old, Terence Crawford knows exactly who he is. He is a four-time world champion in four different weight classes. He has been the undisputed champion at both 140 and 147 pounds, has an unblemished record of 41-0 and recently won the World Boxing Association 154-pound title by claiming what some critics felt was a “too close” decision from Israil Madrimov on August 3 in Madrimov’s first title defense. In other words, Crawford is one of the greatest boxers of his time and he knows it.

What he also knows, however, are the facts of life for any boxer, regardless of his station, and sometimes those facts have little to do with one’s ability to box. Truth be told, power in the marketplace is the most important possession a prizefighter can have and, for the moment at least, someone else controls that title. Of this, Crawford has no doubt.

Too often market power can rank above punching power, will, and even skill, although to have supreme market power one usually has the other factors in abundance as well. This is one of the hard lessons Crawford has learned during his 16-year professional career. It is one he has slowly grown to accept and so, although he knows what he wants his next step to be and is confident about taking it, he understands someone else will decide if he does or doesn’t.

Which brings us to Canelo Alvarez.

Alvarez is the reigning champion of the marketplace. He too is a four-time world champion in four different weight classes, has unified several titles and at the moment is the former undisputed super middleweight champion of the world (“former” now that the IBF has stripped him of its title). More significantly for Crawford, the same holds true for the super box-office championship of the world. Alvarez now wears that crown, too, and so he has the most important thing there is when it comes to the business of boxing. He has leverage.

(Photo by Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing/Getty Images)

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but my next goal is to conquer the world with Canelo,” Crawford told The Ring. “There’s pretty much nothing else out there for me. It’s a David vs. Goliath-type fight. People think he’s going to run right through me. They think he’ll knock me out. Well, I want to see it. I want the challenge. Who decides if it will happen? Him.

“Canelo has been at the top of the boxing world for a long time. We tend to say ‘I’m next in line.’ I deserve this or that. We don’t look at what the other fighter deserves. He has done everything he’s supposed to do to be in the position to say yea or nay. The world might want to see it and I might want to do it, but that fighter has earned the right to be in a position to decide if he wants to fight me or not.

“It could be my next fight. If everything falls into place, it will get made. I whole-hearted believe that. But he’s got another fight coming up. He has to concentrate on that. There’s no sense trying to push him into talking about this fight now. Be respectful.”

Respect is an elusive thing in boxing. It is hard-earned and sometimes only grudgingly given. It has taken some time for Crawford to understand the various forms it can take, and so he laughs now when asked what he thinks of those who feel facing Canelo at this stage of his career is not only a dangerous undertaking but perhaps a fool’s errand.

The belief of many in boxing is that Alvarez is simply too big for Crawford. Boxing has weight classes for a reason, the doubters say, and while special fighters like Crawford and Alvarez have been able to successfully move up through four divisions, the body has its limits. Even though he briefly held a light heavyweight title, Alvarez found his limit at 175 pounds when he was thoroughly dominated by Dmitry Bivol. The unanimous decision loss in May 2022 prompted a move back to the more comfortable super middleweight division he has long dominated.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but my next goal is to conquer the world with Canelo.”

Crawford began winning titles at 135 pounds, 19 pounds below where Alvarez weighed when he won his first championship. At their peak weights, Alvarez won at 175, which is 21 pounds heavier than the junior middleweight limit that marks Crawford’s highest division so far. So for Crawford to move up two more weight classes to challenge Alvarez at 168 would require him to add another 14 pounds. But the reality is that by the time the first bell tolled on the night of such a fight, Alvarez, after hydrating for a day, would likely weigh in excess of 175 pounds.

Crawford understands this just as he understands there is a limit when it comes to how far a man can push his body weight upwards while still retaining his punching power and speed. He just believes he hasn’t reached his limit yet.

“To be 100 percent honest with you, I didn’t feel no difference between 147 and 154,” Crawford said of his recent tussle with Madrimov. Although some critics questioned his performance and his ability to handle the increased weight in his first fight at junior middleweight, of one thing he is sure.

(Photo by Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing/Getty Images)

“Will I fight again at 147?” Crawford said. “Never. I’m never going back down there. I actually felt stronger. I didn’t have to kill my body with plastics (sweat suits) to make weight. I know what people say about moving up, but I don’t put any limits on myself. I believe my skill and technique will take me to the next level.’’

Some longtime observers of the sport recall when Pernell Whitaker made a similar move from welterweight to junior middleweight. Like Crawford, it was his fourth jump up in weight and he managed to win a world title that night but quickly moved back to welterweight, conceding that fighting 19 pounds above the lightweight limit where he’d begun his career was a bit too much.

Manny Pacquiao’s eight-division record is pretty secure. (Photo by Richard W. Rodriguez/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The supremely talented Vasiliy Lomachenko also found three weight classes were his limit. But then there is Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao is the only fighter to win world titles in EIGHT different weight divisions ranging from 112 to 154 pounds. And he actually began his professional career at 106, meaning his career spanned 48 pounds.

While Crawford has no thoughts of eight weight classes, he firmly believes moving from 135 to 168 in 16 years as a professional is well within his range. More importantly, as he sees it, it’s well worth the risk.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about the money when you get to this point,” Crawford said. “I’ve done all I can accomplish. I have an amazing career. But we can’t eat trophies. I can’t go to Best Buy and say ‘I won a title. Can I buy my children an iPad with it?’

“If you told me when I was starting out that I would accomplish all I have and still be fighting at 36, I wouldn’t have believed you. I always said I’d retire at 33, but I still love to compete. I’m a competitive person. Things like that don’t go away. Do I love the sport the way I did as a kid? I can’t say I do, because of the politics, but I still love to compete.

“Nobody beats time. We know that. I don’t remind myself of that, but my body reminds me. There are kinks now that go unnoticed. People don’t know all the injuries we go through. But we endure the things we have to endure. That’s why we’re prizefighters.”

One thing Crawford recently had to endure to win his latest prize was a tougher night with Madrimov than the public expected. Although he won a unanimous decision and dominated the late rounds by wearing the bigger man down, some wondered if he had failed to carry his punching power into the 154-pound division. If not, they theorized, how could he possibly compete with a super middleweight with the power and work rate of Alvarez?

Crawford heard those critics, but unlike when he was younger, their words did not sting him as criticism once had. At this stage of things, he understands a fighter is only as good as his most recent performance, so what perplexed him wasn’t the criticism but that those critics didn’t view things as he had.

“I thought I looked wonderful in that fight,” Crawford said. “I rewatched it and thought I was sharp and controlling the action. The only thing he was doing was feinting and moving. He didn’t try to engage.

“People just thought, ‘Terence Crawford didn’t blow him out of the water.’ Criticism used to bother me. I used to have a chip on my shoulder and get angry. Now I accept all criticism. It comes with the territory. It’s just someone’s opinion, but I think people didn’t understand how good Madrimov was that night. He changed his whole style. I was training for a fighter to do certain things and he came out and did the complete opposite. That throws you off.

“I thought we’d collide and we didn’t. He didn’t want to engage. He wanted to counter me on my counter, so it became a technical fight. Two fighters trying to counter becomes a chess match, so I took my time. In the past, I might get impatient, but I stayed patient and felt I controlled the fight.”

So, too, did longtime trainer and broadcaster Teddy Atlas, who was impressed with the way Crawford handled a “tricky guy who wouldn’t lead.”

“With a guy like that, you don’t take chances,” Atlas cautioned. “If Madrimov did more to try and win, Crawford looks better. Madrimov wasn’t going to win with the approach he took, but it was his best chance to survive. I thought Crawford realized that and was calculating and purposeful.

“You have to remember, Crawford wasn’t just going up a division. This was his fourth move up. There’s a limit how many steps up you can go. I think this fight should stop thoughts of going up two more divisions to Canelo, but that’s up to Crawford. He’s the only one who knows how he felt in there.”

(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Terence Crawford certainly understands there are limits that must be respected, but he also believes his limits are different from others. Young, hungry fighters like Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Vergil Ortiz have begun to call him out as he once called out Pacquiao and he understands their desires. He understands they want their chance at the big fights and the biggest challenges, and he represents to them what Alvarez does to him.

Armed with the understanding that comes with age, he doesn’t fault them for that but points out Ennis is the IBF welterweight champion and so would have to move up in weight to face him, and Ortiz looked like he’d be wise to stay at 147 himself, despite defeating Serhii Bohachuk to claim the WBC’s interim 154-pound title in his last fight, in which he was twice knocked to the floor and barely escaped with a majority decision. While Crawford understands their eagerness to face him, he argues their resumes lack the market power needed to create such a fight.

“I’ve been hearing what I can’t do my whole career.”

“They’re doing the right thing calling me out,” Crawford said. “I definitely get it. But I had to work so hard to get the [big] fights I got. They ain’t done half of what I did to get to me. You want me to backtrack and forget the biggest fight in boxing – me and Canelo – to fight Boots or Vergil? What am I gaining from that?

“This is like when I wanted to fight Pacquiao. I had everything to gain. I’d won multiple world titles by then and been Fighter of the Year. My record was night and day different when compared with Boots and Vergil and me and Pacquiao.

“Pacquiao was at the age where he couldn’t afford to take another loss, so fighting a guy like Terence Crawford at that point of his career wasn’t smart. I couldn’t get a Pacquiao fight even though I had multiple accomplishments, but everybody else could. I was bitter at the time, but it was a business decision. I understand now.”

What Terence Crawford also understands is that at this point in his career, the only fights he wants are the biggest challenges he can find. So he waits to see what comes next, believing firmly in the one thing he has always believed in since his amateur days when he was often dismissed as just some kid from Omaha. He believes in himself.

“I’ve been hearing what I can’t do my whole career,” Crawford said. “From the amateurs through the professionals. I would be set to fight the number 1, 2 or 3 guy and they’d say, ‘You’re coming from Nebraska fighting such and such.’ I didn’t care. Maybe he beat you, but I’m not you. A lot of people doubted me. But here I am.”

Here he is at nearly 37, still looking for one more chance to show the world Terence Crawford is more than some kid from Nebraska. A whole lot more.