Despite arguably producing the greatest boxing resumé this century, Terence “Bud” Crawford still seems to believe that he has doubters within the boxing world, even after beating Canelo Alvarez and taking his undisputed super middleweight belts on September 13.
There’s no doubt that Crawford had flown under the radar regarding mainstream attention and coverage before fighting Canelo. While true boxing fans have known and respected Crawford’s generational talent and performances in the ring for most of his career, the fact that Crawford isn’t as brash and outspoken as most of the sweet science’s biggest names has made it so that he gets less attention than he deserves.
That has now changed. After the dominant unanimous decision win Crawford secured against Canelo, he has entered a new stratosphere of superstardom and renown in the sports world. And it has been awesome to see him get his well-deserved flowers this late into his career.
Terence Crawford Addresses Canelo Alvarez Being “Washed” Claims During Victory Parade
Crawford now getting these flowers doesn’t mean he has lost the chip on his shoulder. In fact, he still seems to be focused on the few doubters he has left, which was shown in a response he made during his September 27 press conference in Omaha, Nebraska, during his victory parade.
“I’m never really gonna get my full respect until after [retirement],” Crawford said, per a YouTube video from Fight Hub TV. “Yes, it’s a lot of people that’s changing their narrative. Like, ‘Man, y’all watching something great right now, and we not appreciating it. And it’s sad to say that we waking up at the tail end of his career. We really didn’t realize it until now, when he’s doing extraordinary stuff, like going up two weight classes to fight the best fighter in that division, the number one guy that’s the face of boxing.’
“The way that I handled that, people are like, ‘Oh, something had to be wrong. Canelo had to be washed, or Canelo just wasn’t in it.’ I see people saying, ‘Oh, Turki paid for Canelo to lose.’ So I just think when you’re that much better than the competition, people are not gonna give you credit until they sit down and look at it, and are just like, ‘Man, that dude was good,'” he continued.