Crawford Belt Loss Was Inevitable After $300K Fee Standoff

Terence Crawford being stripped of his WBC 168-lb title was predictable yesterday, due to the sanctioning fee of $300K from the $50 million purse received last September for the Canelo Alvarez fight.

WBC Gave Him a Break — He Still Said No

The WBC had already bent over backward to give Crawford a break, lowering their usual 3% sanctioning fee to 0.6%. That meant he didn’t have to pay $1.5 million from the $50 million purse he got from the Canelo ‘Fight of the Century,’ just $300,000. Crawford refused to pay.

Stubbornness Over Strategy

Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs), digging in his heels, refusing to pay, and devaluing the WBC belt, left the sanctioning body with no choice but to strip him. What Crawford fails to grasp is how his stubborn stance has hurt him and his market value.

Someone needed to sit Crawford down and make him understand what he stood to lose by not paying the WBC’s sanctioning fee. That didn’t happen, and Bud let his emotions foil him.

Three Belts Don’t Sell Like Four

The Nebraska native Terence was slow to understand the importance of the WBC title to him keeping his undisputed super middleweight championship. He needed all four titles to keep his value high so he could get top dollar for his rematch with Canelo or a fight against anyone else.

Crawford’s decision not to pay the $300K, which is a nothing amount given how much he’s made in his last two fights, means he’ll go into negotiations as the former undisputed 168-lb champion, rather than the current one. He’s pushing 39, and it doesn’t help that he’s only holding three belts instead of all four.

During yesterday’s rant, Terence let slip that he’d negotiated his sanctioning fee with the other IBF, WBA, and WBO for him to keep their belts. But he had a problem with the WBC, and he said that they should have taken what he offered them.

Bradley’s Sheeraz Conspiracy

“It’s about Hamzah Sheeraz getting a strap. That’s what this is about. Who’s guy is that?” said Tim Bradley on his channel, hinting that the reason the WBC stripped Crawford was to help out Turki Alalshikh get one of his favorite fighters, Hamzah Sheeraz, a title.

“It ain’t about the money. It’s about Sheeraz getting that belt without having to go through Crawford,” said Bradley.

Truth: Crawford Tried to Lowball the WBC

Tim is going off into left field with his conspiracy theory idea. That’s not what this is. The real problem is Crawford being cheap, expecting the WBC to grant him special treatment and pay what he wants rather than following their rules.