Crawford Targets Undisputed At 154 – ‘A Lot Of People Hate’
Terence Crawford wants to become undisputed at 154 pounds.
Bud is moving up from 147 to face Israil Madrimov on August 3 for his opponent’s WBA Junior Middleweight Title. A victory would make Crawford a four-division champion. He is coming off a win over Errol Spence Jr. He stopped The Truth in the ninth round to become the first Undisputed Welterweight Champion of the four-belt era.
The victory also made him undisputed in a second weight class. By beating Madrimov, Crawford would begin his journey of becoming undisputed in a third division. He is also the WBO mandatory at 154, meaning a victory allows him to face Sebastian Fundora. Fundora holds the WBO and WBC titles. That would then allow Crawford to unify the division, leaving him with only the IBF title to secure.
Given that he is 36, he knows he is in the latter parts of his career. He is now chasing legacy and the chance to secure the biggest payday of his career. If Crawford becomes undisputed in a third-weight class, he will separate himself from the other fighters by becoming the first to do so. And that is something that he is targeting moving forward.
Crawford Reacts
“We’re months away from fight time. Come fight time, energy is going to be up, and we’re going to be on a whole other level. We’re both going to come out ready and do what we do to get the job done. Everywhere I go in the world, it’s all love. People tell me they rate me as one of the best fighters in the world today. A lot of people hate, so that makes it seem like there’s not love here.
“August 3rd is going to be an exciting night of boxing. This is a tremendous card. As Eddie [Hearn] said, I can’t remember there being a card as stacked as the August 3rd card is. There’s potentially two belts on the line. If Fundora don’t fight me after this, I’m potentially the WBA and WBO champion. If he do fight me, that’s three belts on the line [WBA, WBC, and WBO]. There’s only one more [IBF] to capture. So potentially two to three fights, that’s undisputed,” Crawford said
Crawford is in a much better position now than when he was trying to secure the undisputed fight with Spence during his time with Top Rank. Crawford was blackballed, as he had the WBO belt but could not make the unification. He had to leave Top Rank and sign with the PBC to secure the Spence fight. While he did perform spectacularly, the fight was not as competitive as it could have been.
Since PBC had delayed making it for so long, there were suggestions that Spence could not make welterweight, which impacted the fight as he tried to secure a rematch at 154 pounds. However, Madrimov is at the peak of his career. And with the Saudis on board with Matchroom Boxing, Crawford knows that he won’t face the same pitfalls that he did previously. This will allow him to secure the biggest fights, as he still has an eye on chasing Canelo Alvarez at 168 pounds. If Crawford becomes undisputed at 154, then there may be enough leverage behind him to make that fight before he retires.
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