FIGHTER OF THE YEAR: TERENCE CRAWFORD
just because he could win at Canelo’s fight didn’t mean he should fight Canelo’s fight for the remaining rounds. “I just felt like I was stronger, I punched harder, and I could’ve just stood in there and really like let ’em go. But you gotta follow the plan,” Crawford said later in September on The Art of Ward with Andre Ward, one great super middleweight champion talking to another. “You gotta execute the plan, and the plan was to get in, get out, box in spurts, bang in spurts, and then once he want to fight, you move around a little bit.” Canelo took the eighth. Again in the ninth, Crawford entered exchanges with Canelo and got the better of them. By the 10th round, Canelo knew he needed something big. He couldn’t be reckless either. “He was trying to be competitive, but he respect my power, and he respect my boxing ability,” Crawford
saw Crawford narrowly ahead, 96-94. Crawford’s final six minutes earned him a unanimous decision, the scores close but the outcome inarguably clear, 115- 113 (twice) and 116-112. The win was his. The championship was his. This award is his as well. Remarkably, for all of Crawford’s achievements, this is his first time as The Ring’s Fighter of the Year. Crawford has long believed he deserved more credit than he received, whether from fans, journalists or the various organizations and publications that issue awards. “I felt as if I should’ve won the
favored Inoue, who knocked out Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales, winning all four junior featherweight world titles in five months to start his reign at 122. In 2017, Crawford stopped the once- beaten Felix Diaz and then demolished Julius Indongo in three rounds to unify the final two belts at junior welterweight and become undisputed. Lomachenko, selected Fighter of the Year by The Ring and the BWAA, defended his title at 130 pounds by making Jason Sosa, Miguel Marriaga and Guillermo Rigondeaux quit.
The others were all-time greats Bob Fitzsimmons, Tony Canzoneri, Barney Ross and Henry Armstrong. Crawford is also one of only three men to be lineal champion in four divisions. The others were all-time greats Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. He capped his run by being the best of 2025. And he’s going out on top. In December, Crawford announced his retirement at the age of 38 after three decades in the sport, including 15 years as a pro. Some would say he’s leaving prematurely, when he’s at his most marketable after years of striving
Fighter of the Year award when I beat [Errol] Spence,” Crawford told Ward during the 2025 interview. “I felt like I should’ve won the Fighter of the Year award when I became undisputed [in 2017]. They didn’t give it to me when I became undisputed, but they gave
for that status. Some would counter that he’s leaving at exactly the right time. What more could motivate Terence Crawford after jumping multiple weight classes to take down the true super middleweight champion? Anyone who thought the Canelo fight was solely
“I think people was disrespecting my skills just because Canelo is an all-time great. But like I said before, he hadn’t fought no Terence Crawford yet.”
it to [Vasiliy] Lomachenko; he didn’t become undisputed [...] They gave it to [Oleksandr] Usyk when he was undisputed. “They gave it to [Naoya] Inoue when he became undisputed. But Terence, they didn’t give it to him. “It was a little biased,” Crawford added. “They say, ‘Oh, he fought one time,’ but look who I fought and look what I did to him. What I did to Spence, none of them other fighters can compete. He was ranked number five in the pound-for-pound list. I’m beating people that’s on the pound- for-pound list.” Crawford makes a good point – he himself was rated third in this publication’s pound-for-pound list going into the summer 2023 fight with Spence, who at number four was even better than Crawford recalled. Crawford’s surprisingly one-sided dissection of Spence was, at the time, the biggest moment of his career. He added the three remaining alphabet belts at welterweight and became undisputed in his second weight division. Yet that year, The Ring and the Boxing Writers Association of America
Crawford did get the nod from the BWAA in 2014, when he traveled to Scotland and outpointed Ricky Burns for his first world title, stopped the previously undefeated Yuriorkis Gamboa and took a wide decision over Ray Beltran for the vacant Ring lightweight championship. This magazine opted for Sergey Kovalev based on his three wins: less for the KOs of Cedric Agnew and Blake Caparello and more the shutout of Bernard Hopkins to add two additional world titles. As prestigious an honor as earning Fighter of the Year may be – it’s clearly important enough to fuel Crawford’s ire – a boxer’s legacy is defined by the entirety of their run. And Crawford’s legacy is truly definitive. He is one of the best of this era. He went 20-0 in title fights. He was ranked on the pound-for-pound list for a decade, and at or near the top of the list for almost all of that stretch. He is one of the best ever. He is one of just five men to be undisputed in three weight classes, according to boxing writer and historian Cliff Rold.
a money grab must have failed to recognize that competitiveness, not just compensation, is Crawford’s main driver. He just wants to be compensated properly in the process. He wasn’t sent out with a golden parachute. He retired with his biggest win in his biggest payday. This was a golden rocketship. This was a crowning achievement. “Beating Canelo is going to be worth more than the bag at the end of the day, because I’m going to be talked about when I’m dead and gone,” Crawford told Newton. “Hundred years, they gonna be like, ‘Man, you remember that kid from Omaha, Nebraska, Bud Crawford, he went up two divisions, matter of fact three divisions, and beat Canelo Alvarez.’ My name is gonna be talked about when I’m dead and gone. That’s what legacy is about.” David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on X @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
If Crawford remains retired, this is one of boxing’s greatest mic drops.
a blow just before the bell pushed him back and drew a shake of the head and a smile. “People said that he was going to knock me out in like three rounds and I was too small,” Crawford said on Cam Newton’s 4th&1 show. “I looked at that as disrespectful. I’ve never been dropped. Never been knocked out before. So what makes you think that I was going to get knocked out [against Canelo]? I think people was disrespecting my skills just because Canelo is an all-time great. But like I said before, he hadn’t fought no Terence Crawford yet.” Canelo did have a better fifth round. In general, throughout the fight, he might land a good shot here or there, but his success was never sustained, never turned the tide. He kept trying
said at the post-fight presser. “And I think what was frustrating him the most is, all his big shots I was blocking and catching and countering.” Indeed, when Crawford sent out a nice counter left in the 10th, Canelo needed to slip and roll with it. In the 11th, Crawford dished out an extended combination and then moved. Canelo retaliated with a lead left uppercut paired with a right cross. The signature moment of the round, however, may have been when Crawford feinted to the body and instead directed a jab upstairs. Canelo looked away after, either in disbelief or disgust. The 12th also belonged to Bud, which proved the difference on the scorecards. With two rounds to go, judges Tim Cheatham and Max DeLuca had things even at 95-95 while Steve Weisfeld
to take control but could never actually regain, never mind remain, in control. Still, Crawford felt it necessary around the midway point to impose his will in order to keep the fight from seesawing back and forth. He wanted to show that he was the boss, whether inside or outside – a message he sent clearly by standing and trading with Canelo in the seventh round. It was a demonstration from one man, demoralization for the other. Crawford was confident he could avoid, block or roll with most of Canelo’s shots, and that he could withstand those that landed cleanly. But
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