By: Sean Crose
Terence Crawford, who has recently been stripped of the WBC super middleweight title for not paying a sanctioning fee to the organization, is clearly miffed. Crawford, who spectacularly defeated longtime super middleweight title holder Canelo Alvarez, has taken his displeasure to social media. “Who the fuck you think I am?” he asks the WBC in a recently released video. “I’m not paying your ass shit.” Crawford goes on to add that the famous WBC green belt isn’t worth to him what some might think. “You can take the fucking belt,” he says. “It’s a trophy anyway.”
Crawford, who is known to have an edge at times, is clearly angry on the video, especially towards WBC honcho Mauricio Sulaiman. “I’m the motherfucker that’s putting his ass on the line,” Crawford says. “You should be paying me.” Crawford goes on to make it clear that he feels WBC officials live well at the expense of himself and other fighters, enjoying lavish hotels and high end dinners.
“Guess who got to pay for it?” he asks rhetorically. “Us fighters. We pay for y’all to come here and have the time of your life…it’s all done on our dime.” The bottom line is that Crawford feels he and his fellow fighters are being treated unfairly. “We getting taxed,” he says. “It’s’ crazy.” Crawford also indicates that Sulaiman was upset that Canelo was bested last September. “Mauricio,” he says, everybody in the world knows you was going for Canelo. You was mad that I beat Canelo.”
Crawford wraps the video up by asserting he doesn’t care whether he has the famous WBC green belt or not. “I’ve been stripped before,” he says. “Doesn’t matter…I’m still the champion in the division.” In Crawford’s mind, the WBC essentially plays by its own rules anyway. “The WBC,” he says, “you don’t ever see them strip Canelo for Benavidez,” referring to the fact Canelo has never stepped in the with the menacing David Benavidez when many fans have wanted him to.
“I’m still the champion,” Crawford tells the WBC, “you can’t take this away from me.” And indeed it’s hard to imagine not seeing Crawford as king of the super middleweights right now regardless of what belts he owns. Certain boxers get to a point in their careers when titles don’t matter. That’s true of Canelo. It’s also true of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. Whether it’s true for Crawford – whose name belongs alongside those other men – at this point remains to be seen.
