Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford 40-0 (31) dreams of becoming a three-weight undisputed world champion before retiring.
The 35-year-old switch-hitter from Omaha, Nebraska won his second undisputed championship when he dethroned Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr 28-1 (22) by ninth-round knockout in Las Vegas in July to add the WBC, WBA and IBF welterweight titles to his WBO strap.
The win saw Crawford become the first male boxer in the the four-belt era to become undisputed in two separate weight classes.
The historic victory came six years after he was crowned the undisputed junior welterweight champion of the world with his third-round knockout of Julius Indongo 24-8 (13).
It has been a remarkable run of success for Crawford, but don’t think that he is done just yet.
Crawford will be watching next weekend’s fight between undisputed super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez 59-2-2 (39) and undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo 35-1-1 (19) much closer than most.
Asked what more he wants to achieve in the sport on Weighing In with Travis Hartman, Crawford said: “Another fight for the undisputed and then I just walk away. Three times undisputed, that would be dope.
“Everything that comes my way, I just take it in stride because I feel it was meant for me and I was supposed to be here. So I don’t get over-excited and I don’t get over-happy about it. I just feel like this is something I’ve been knowing about myself for years. Y’all might be excited, but I’m not excited because I already knew what y’all didn’t know.
“I might be disappointed that it took so long. It took me five years to fight Errol Spence. When I came in the division in 2018, I wanted all the champions, all three. I didn’t take no tune-up fights. I went straight to Jeff Horn in my first fight.
“He was coming off a win over [Manny] Pacquiao. In my first fight, I was, ‘Let’s go’. Everybody was like, ‘you need to test out the weight class’. [But] I want to go straight into the champions.
“At that particular time, they were saying [Horn] and Errol Spence were the two biggest welterweights in the division. I was calling them out but I didn’t have a title yet. ‘Oh, he ain’t got no title, he ain’t even fought in the welterweight division yet.’
“But y’all was hinting that you would fight Jeff Horn, but once I fought Jeff Horn, it was ‘you’re on the wrong side of the street’ and all these other narratives states. So it was a whole bunch of hassles.
“But everything happens for a reason. I’m here now, I’m undisputed. I did what I said I was going to do and my life moves on.”
As for the immediate future, Crawford is obliged to face Spence for a second time after the 33-year-old Texan enacted the immediate rematch clasue in his contract. And despite speculation the fight could take place at 154-pounds, Crawford said the return bout will take place at welterweight again.
“Well the contract states that either one or the other gotta notify in writing that he can no longer make the weight,” said Crawford. “If not, the fight will be at ’47.”
“The contract states that it has to go at ’47 since neither I nor Errol notified each other saying that we can’t make the weight.”
