Terence Crawford could only laugh in disbelief when he got wind of the latest barb from Canelo Alvarez.
The undisputed 147-pound champion from Omaha, Nebraska, has been soaking in the adulation after his career-defining beatdown of Errol Spence Jr. last month to unify all four titles in the welterweight division.
Recently, not long after expressing interest in a hypothetical fight with Crawford in the future, the undisputed 168-pound champion from Mexico sought to put the brakes on Crawford’s victory lap by nitpicking a topic that Crawford has long been sensitive to: his résumé.
“No, look, like I always said, I respect Terence Crawford," Canelo told TMZ Sports. “He's a very talented fighter but he just won one big fight. If you see his record, he just beat one good fighter in Errol Spence. Other than that, I don't think he's beaten other great fighters like Spence.”
The comment clearly touched Crawford’s nerve, who quickly offered a response online.
“Here we go with the I haven’t fought nobody but Spence talk,” Crawford wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Lol y’all so delusional it’s crazy [cry laughing emoji].”
The 35-year-old Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), a three-division titlist, has had to field criticism about his lackluster body of work ever since he entered the welterweight ranks, some five years ago.
A rematch between Crawford and Spence has reportedly been set after Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) invoked his contractual right. But neither a date nor the weight class has been finalized. The choice of the weight class resides with Crawford. Spence has made it clear he prefers the rematch to take place at 154 pounds. Crawford said immediately after their first fight that he would be open to fighting at that limit as well.
Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) will defend his four 168-pound titles against undisputed 154-pound champion Jermell Charlo on Sept. 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.