LAS VEGAS – Terence Crawford smiled Wednesday when he expressed how he feels about the IBF stripping him of its welterweight title last week.
The undefeated, undisputed 147-pound champion couldn’t believe that the New Jersey-based sanctioning organization took one of his titles away from him barely three months after he stopped previously unbeaten rival Errol Spence Jr. to win it July 29 at T-Mobile Arena. Crawford still owns the WBA, WBC and WBO belts, but he isn’t sure whether the immediate rematch to which he is contractually bound will be contested at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds or the junior middleweight maximum of 154 pounds.
“Man, f— the IBF! That’s what I say,” Crawford told a group of reporters after the Shakur Stevenson-Edwin De Los Santos weigh-in at T-Mobile Arena. “You know what I mean? F— the IBF and they organization. I don’t give a f— about, you know what I mean, the IBF. They stripped me damn near 2½ months after [I won] my title, not knowing what was gonna happen next. But it’s cool, though. I’m not mad at ‘em, you know? I got what I needed, and that was, you know, undisputed. And the rest is history. You know, I don’t care about none of that.”
Crawford, 36, didn’t seem genuinely angry, but the Omaha, Nebraska native pointed out that the IBF never stripped Spence, despite the fact that the often-injured ex-champion hadn’t made a mandatory defense of his IBF belt in more than five years by the time he faced Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs). The IBF’s rationale for taking Crawford’s title is that he couldn’t commit to fighting interim champion Jaron Ennis next because he is contractually obligated to an immediate rematch with Spence (28-1, 22 KOs), whom Crawford dropped three times and beat by ninth-round technical knockout.
The IBF elevated Ennis (31-0, 28 KOs, 1 NC), who was Crawford’s mandatory challenger, from interim champ to full champ when it stripped Crawford.
When asked if he was frustrated by the IBF’s decision, Crawford replied, “No, not at all, because like I said, I came into that fight looking to become undisputed. You know, I became undisputed, so there’s nothing there for me to accomplish at that point in time. You know, so I did what I said I was gonna do. I came, I saw, I conquered and it’s on to the next.”
Crawford became boxing’s first fully unified welterweight champion of the four-belt era by beating Spence. The three-division champion also won the WBA and WBC belts from Spence, a southpaw from DeSoto, Texas.
The former undisputed 140-pound king hasn’t heard from Premier Boxing Champions founder Al Haymon regarding when he’ll fight Spence again.
“Well, the latest is, you know, we signed and [are] contracted to do a rematch, and that’s what it is right now,” Crawford said. “I don’t got no date right now. You know, but I know that’s the next fight that Terence Crawford will have.”
Showtime’s exit from the boxing business, which was announced by parent company Paramount Global on October 17, has complicated the scheduling of the Crawford-Spence rematch. Their first fight headlined a Showtime Pay-Per-View event, but Haymon hasn’t announced the platform(s) with which PBC will work in 2024.
“I don’t know,” Crawford said. “It’s still up in the air, given the fact that Showtime has no longer decided to do boxing. So, everything’s up in the air right now with that. But nothing’s being noted to me that the fight will not happen, so you know, that’s the fight [that’s next for me].”
Crawford did acknowledge that his second fight versus Spence could be contracted for a 154-pound limit.
“We don’t know yet,” Crawford said. “The contract say 147, so you know, that’s what it’s at right now. You know, who knows? We can decide on 154 or 147. You know, right now, you know, everything’s up in the air right now.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.