Mauricio Sulaiman could not have picked a worse time to awaken some very powerful enemies.
Chief among those prepared to turn their back on the WBC is Terence “Bud” Crawford. The five-division champion was stripped of his WBC 168lbs belt for failure to pay sanctioning fees to the Mexico City-headquartered organization from his last two contests.
The breaking point for Sulaiman and his team was not receiving an allegedly agreed-upon $300,000 payment following Crawford’s historic win over Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Crawford bumped off the Mexican legend to become the undisputed 168lbs champion atop their September 13 Netflix event from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Champion Crawford allegedly earned 50 million dollars for that fight,” Sulaiman said in a ruling made during the WBC convention in Bangkok, Thailand. “Appreciating the magnitude of that event, the WBC modified its rules to limit the Boxer’s Bout Fee to a 0.6% sanction fee instead of the 3% that the WBC Rules & Regulations require.
“The WBC put Champion Crawford on notice regarding his failure to comply with express mandates of the WBC Rules & Regulations; specifically, the non-payment of the Boxer’s Bout Fees for his last two fights: against Israil Madrimov and against Saúl Álvarez.
“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. The WBC had no choice but to act, considering Champion Crawford had received ample notification and multiple opportunities to address and resolve the situation.”
Sulaiman also noted that Crawford, 42-0 (31 KOs), failed to pay sanctioning fees from his August 2024 win over unbeaten Israil Madrimov. Crawford won the WBA 154lbs title that evening, along with the WBO interim belt and with the WBC having sanctioned the bout as a title eliminator at the request of Crawford and his team.
Crawford never returned to the 154lbs division, neither to defend his title or enforce his WBC mandatory status. He instead moved up two divisions – after having already moved up from 147lbs to 154lbs – to dethrone Alvarez, 63-3-2 (39 KOs). The win saw Crawford become a three-division undisputed champion, four-division lineal king and overall five-division titlist.
While the WBC 168lbs belt may be freed up, Sulaiman has landed squarely in Crawford’s crosshairs.
The unbeaten all-time great made a point to directly address the subject during a nine-minute live rant on his Instagram page.
"I see Mauricio got a lot to say about me not paying him $300,000 plus another $100k something for sanctioning fees,” Crawford started off the live-recorded session while in his car. “Then he's going to tell me, I ain't even apologize. Like, who the fuck do you think I am? Boy, you've got to slap your fucking self. I ain't paying your ass shit. What the fuck you talking about, pay you $300,000? What makes you so motherfucking better than any of the other sanctioning bodies?
“Huh? Answer that question. What makes you better than the WBO, the IBF, or the WBA? Everybody accepted what I was giving them, but… the WBC, think that you better than everybody? Don't you? You got the fucking green belt, which don't mean fucking shit.
“The fucking real belt is the Ring belt, which is free, motherfucker. [What are] you talking about? You want me to pay you more than the other sanctioning bodies because you feel like you're better than them? How in the world? All the sanction bodies agreed to the same amount, but you sit your motherfucking ass up there and say that I need to apologize to you. The fuck? You can take the fucking belt. It's a trophy anyway. [Why] the fuck am I paying you every time I step foot in the fucking ring?”
Crawford still holds the WBA, IBF and WBO belts and – as mentioned during his epic rant – is the recognized lineal and Ring Magazine champion.
Hardly coincidental, Crawford’s sentiments were echoed by Nick Khan, the powerful president of WWE whose TKO Group and Zuffa Boxing are pushing for Congress to approve its Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, a proposed amendment to the current Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act which was enacted in 2000.
The matter is due to be heard by the Committee on Education and Workforce during a hearing scheduled for Thursday at 10:15 a.m. ET. Khan addressed the matter, along with his thoughts on the WBC, during a well-timed interview on ESPN’s popular “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday.
“Outside of [Zuffa’s’] announcement with Paramount+…boxing does not exist [in the U.S] on any major media conglomerate outlet,” Khan noted. “It’s time to put some effort in. We think there’s a chance to bring it back to where it should be. We’ll see what we can do.
“Terence Crawford’s amazing effort against Canelo Alvarez… unanimously won that [undisputed 168lbs] championship. So how in fact, is it that two-and-half months later, he’s no longer the champion of [the WBC]? Because he didn’t pay a fee. That would be akin to the Los Angeles Dodgers having won a grueling, seven-game world series… and then Major League Baseball came to them and said, ‘You didn’t pay a fee so you’re no longer the world champions.’ It’s only in this sport of boxing where you see nonsense like this.
“By the way, the fellow who runs [the WBC] – going into Canelo-Crawford, he said he couldn’t stay in a regular hotel room. He needed a suite, he needed tickets for front row. He wanted to make sure there were ample number of tickets. It all seems quite odd that a sport would be run that way. So, our enhancement act – if you’re a fighter and you want to continue with it, nothing changes. This is presenting an “or” – a different option. If you want to come into a Unified Boxing Organization (UBO) … come here, fight with us.”
It is understandable that Sulaiman would use the annual WBC convention as a platform to declare the recent news on Crawford. However, the politician in him failed miserably in terms of timing.
Those who are in favor of TKO and Zuffa’s proposed amendment and future vision were quick to point out decades’ worth of damage caused by the sanctioning bodies.
The WBC was the first option to the old, one champion system with its formation in 1963. The past 60-plus years have produced very mixed results. While Sulaiman is an honorable humanitarian on a personal level, his organization – along with the IBF, WBO and especially the WBA in recent years – has made far too many decisions to create division and confusion among the sport.
For the moment, its latest detractor just happens to be the best fighter in the world and one of the very best to ever lace ‘em up.
“I'm the motherfucker that's putting my life on the line, not you,” Crawford stated in a reminder to all non-participants that the only fighters in the sport – are the actual fighters. “You ain't stepping your motherfucking ass in that ring. You or nobody else. So why should I have to pay to carry your belt? You should be paying me, if you want to be truthful.
“It irks my nerves how this dude gets on a plane, gets a hotel suite — him and his buddies — they go out to dinner, five-star meals, all that, and guess who's got to pay for it? Us fighters. We're paying for y'all to come out here, have the time of your life, stay in the best hotels of your life, and it's all done on our dime."
