RINGSIDE
truthful. You should be payin’ me! “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 gotta pay for it? Us fighters! We payin’ for y’all to come out here, have the time of y’all life, stay in the best hotels of y’all life, and it’s all done on our dime. Do that sound
“I got a lot to say,” Crawford said while driving his truck to a burger spot in Omaha, R&B group Jagged Edge playing in the background. “I see Mauricio got a lot to say about me not paying him $300,000, plus another [$100,000] for sanctioning fees, right? Then he gonna tell me I need to apologize. Like who the fuck you think I am? “Boy, you better slap your fuckin’ self. I ain’t paying yo ass shit. Fuck you talkin’ about pay you $300,000? “What makes you so motherfuckin’ 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 you. “But you, the WBC, think that you better than everybody. Don’t you? So, since you the WBC, and you got the fuckin’ green belt – which don’t mean fuckin’ shit! The fuckin’ real belt is the Ring belt, which is FREE, motherfucka – you want me to pay you more than the other sanctioning bodies because you feel like you better than them. “All the sanctioning bodies agreed to the same amount, but you sit yo motherfuckin’ ass up there and say I need to apologize to you. “The fuck? YOU CAN TAKE THE FUCKIN’ BELT! It’s a trophy anyway! The fuck am I paying you every time I step foot in the fuckin’ ring? It’s gonna wear down as the years pass. That don’t even make sense. “I’M the motherfucka putting my life on the line, not you. You ain’t steppin your mother- fuckin’ ass in the ring. You or nobody else.
the undisputed champion. I am still THE champion in the division because you know why? The only belt that’s recognizable as THE champion is the Ring belt, baby. That’s the No. 1 belt in the division. That trumps all belts. And guess what? IT’S FREE! IT’S FREEEEE!!! How you love that? $180,000 – FREE! “How much your belt cost? I wonder how much your belt cost? Huh? I don’t see no receipts on your belt. It’s crazy, but y’all be having so much taxes on these belts. You got some nerve. It’s crazy that you can sit up there and have all these belts. You got the WBC silver, the interim, whatever belts y’all got, and you taxin’ these fighters every time they fight and you claim that you for these fighters. You not for these fighters. You probably worse than the promoters. “But hey, I wish you the best, you and your company. Turki, I hope y’all get that done, man. So we can all see people like this guy go away from boxing, because they ruinin’ the sport with all
right to y’all? It’s crazy, ain’t it? “We the one out there getting
battered, knocked upside our head, and every time we step foot in the ring we gotta pay them a sanctioning fee like they the government. We gettin’ taxed. It’s crazy. “Listen, you shoulda took the money and you shoulda been thankful and grateful that I was rockin’ your belt around as your champion, the WBC champion, the undisputed champion at that. But you wanted to make it about you. You wanted to say you stripped me. I been stripped before. The IBF just stripped me when I was at 147. Doesn’t matter. I’m still considered
“So, why should I have to pay to carry your belt? You should be paying me, if you wanna be
A decade ago, Floyd Mayweather Jr. refused to pay WBO sanctioning fees.
10 RINGMAGAZINE.COM
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