Terence Crawford tore a piece of paper and began mapping out how he wanted the last few years of his career to play out.
Of course, fighting Errol Spence Jr. was number one on his agenda. Beating the former unified champ meant that he could become an undisputed champion in his second weight class. Once Spence was out of the way, Crawford began drawing the face of Jermell Charlo, the former undisputed champion in the junior middleweight division.
From there, the rest of Crawford’s sheet of paper was blank. Considering his age and how long he was in the sport, he hinted at walking away if everything went according to plan. So far, his strategy is going along just fine.
In late July, Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) dismantled Spence, winning virtually every second of every round before finishing him off in the ninth frame. Immediately following the beatdown, the pound-for-pound star turned to Charlo who was sitting in the crowd, and warned him that he was next.
At the time, Charlo had a lot to offer. He was the proud owner of the WBA, WBO, WBC, and IBF titles. He was also as violent as they come.
All in all, Crawford was excited about facing Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs) next. But before the two could immure themselves in the negotiating room, Charlo’s name lost a bit of its shine.
With a lopsided loss against Canelo Alvarez, coupled with the WBO stripping him of his title and later dropping the IBF, Crawford is left a bit uninterested. Although he won’t summarily dismiss the likelihood that they’ll eventually meet, Crawford acknowledged that a Charlo fight isn’t so sexy anymore.
“I’m not gonna rule it out,” Crawford told FightHype’s Sean Zittel during a recent interview. “Charlo still got two belts, he’s still the champion but right now, I’m not looking to fight Charlo.”