Terence Crawford fires back after WBC strips him of super-middleweight world title

Terence Crawford told the WBC it can keep its super-middleweight world title.

Crawford responded Wednesday after the sanctioning body stripped his belt by claiming the undefeated American had failed to pay $300,000 in sanctioning fees from his fight with Canelo Alvarez.

Crawford became the undisputed super-middleweight champion when he beat Alvarez by unanimous decision in September, but the WBC said it hasn’t received its 0.6% sanction fee on Crawford’s reported $50 million earnings.

On his Instagram account, Crawford disputed the earnings figure and accused WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman of favoritism.

“You want me to pay you more than the other sanctioning bodies because you feel like you’re better than them. You can take the belt,” Crawford said, adding an expletive.

He said in comments to Sulaiman: “You don’t know how much I made. Once again, you’re speculating.” He added that Sulaiman was “mad that I beat Canelo.”

“Still the champion, can’t take that away from me, history already been made baby,” he said.

The WBC had also claimed that Crawford didn’t pay bout fees for his fight against Israil Madrimov in August 2024.

“The WBC sent multiple communications to champion Crawford, his manager, and his legal counsel. Very unfortunately, the WBC did not receive an acknowledgment of receipt nor any response to any of those communications,” it said in a statement Wednesday.

“The WBC had no choice but to act, considering champion Crawford had received ample notification and multiple opportunities to address and resolve the situation.”

The sanctioning body reportedly ordered a fight between Britain’s Hamzah Sheeraz and Christian Mbilli for the vacant title.

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