Terence Crawford snaps on WBC in explosive, 9-minute response to fee dispute: ‘Who the f*** do you think I am?’
Terence Crawford appears to have found his next opponent. Unfortunately, this is not good news for the WBC and its president, Mauricio Sulaiman.
Crawford, Uncrown’s No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer, lashed out at the sanctioning body on Instagram on Wednesday after it was stripped of his WBC super middleweight title over a sanctioning fee dispute.
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Suleiman announced early Wednesday morning at the WBC meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, that Crawford was stripped of his undisputed status for failing to pay WBC sanctioning fees for his fights against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in September and Israel Madrimov in August 2024.
Sulaiman noted that due to the size of the event, the WBC charged Crawford 0.6% of his fight purse against Alvarez instead of the standard 3% fee. The WBC president used a reported $50 million for Crawford’s purse and demanded $300,000 in sanctioning fees.
“The WBC sent numerous communications to champion Crawford, his manager and legal counsel,” Sulaiman said. “Unfortunately, WBC has received neither acknowledgment nor response to any of these communications.”
Enraged, Crawford responded at length to the WBC’s decision and Sulaiman’s comments in an explosive nine-minute video that appeared to be recorded from his car.
Excerpts from Crawford’s response:
“I see Mauricio has a lot to say about me not paying him $300,000 and another $100,000 in sanctioning fees. Then he’s going to tell me I didn’t even apologize. Like, who the hell do you think I am? Boy, you should slap your own damn self. I’m not paying you. What are you talking about, pay my money for $300,000? What makes you better than the other sanctioning bodies? I’m getting you from the WBO, What makes it better than IBF or WBA?
“You’ve got a fucking green belt, which doesn’t mean a fucking belt. The real belt is the free Ring belt, motherfucker.” [What] Are you talking about? You want me to pay you more than other sanctioning bodies because you think you’re better than them? So how? All the sanctioning bodies agreed, but you get off your ass and say I should apologize to you. What the fuck? You can have the damn belt. It’s a trophy, after all. [Why] Am I paying you every time I step in the fucking ring?”
“I’m the son of a bitch risking my life, not you. You’re not going to get your ass in that ring. You or anyone else. So why should I have to pay to carry your belt? If you want to be honest, you have to pay me. It gets on my nerves when this guy gets on a plane, gets a hotel suite – him and his friends – go out to dinner, five-star meals and all that. Who’s going to pay for that? Us warriors. We’re paying for you to come here, stay in the best hotels of your life, and it’s all ours.” “It’s done with our money.”
“We’re the ones out there getting beat up, getting our heads turned upside down, and every time we step into the ring we have to pay them an enforcement fee like they own the government – we’re taxed. It’s crazy.”
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Crawford further applauded Saudi fight financier Turki Alalshikh, who financed Crawford’s last two fights, for promoting the belt to Ring Magazine, which does not charge boxers sanctioning fees.
