Terence Crawford says he heard WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora was knocked out in sparring by former WBA champion Israil Madrimov.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) is demoting Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) before even signing for a fight. They are in negotiations and hope to set up a clash at a yet to be determined date.
Crawford, 37, doesn’t like Fundora’s sudden interest in fighting him after he wasn’t keen on facing him. It makes Crawford think that Fundora changed his mind about him after watching his recent fight against Madrimov on August 3rd and seeing him struggle to win a 12-round draw unanimous decision.
Madrimov made Crawford look his age, and he could have easily won had he shown more initiative in rounds 10 to 12. The way Crawford looked in that fight, any top-level 154-pounder would want to fight him.
He shouldn’t be upset that Fundora is “licking” his chops to fight him because he saw what everyone else saw. Crawford is showing signs of age, and he’s not the same fighter at junior middleweight that he was at 147, 140 and 135
With Crawford fighting just once a year for the last four years since 2020, not fighting major opposition, and moving up in weight, decline was bound to happen. He lost the hunger he had earlier in his career before he was paying well. This is something that happens to any human being. Laziness sets in once a fighter starts making good money, and that’s what happened to Crawford.
“It’s a fight on the table. If Fundora is licking his chops about my performance against Israil Madrimov, then I should be licking my chops, because Madrimov knocked Fundora out in sparring. So who needs to lick their chops? That’s what I heard,” said Terence Crawford Bernie Tha Boxerdevaluing his potential next opponent, WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora.
It’s interesting how Crawford gets upset, forcing his own negative conclusions about why Fundora wants to fight him now. Perhaps the real reason Fundora and his promoter want Crawford is because it’s a fight that would probably pay better than a title defense against Errol Spence. It’s not that they see Crawford as a sure win. He is now the most popular fighter in the 154-lb division, and anyone who faces him will get a nice payday.
“I don’t understand why Shakur, Devin Haney and I get the most hate out of everybody,” Crawford said. “You have two young black fighters in Shakur and Devin, that’s on top of that. You’ve made them do great things their whole career.”
Haney and Shakur Stevenson are not at the top of the sport. Haney just got beat, and Shakur might not even be the fifth best fighter at lightweight. He’s not a PPV draw, and he might lose his next fight to William Zepeda.
“You let me manage my business from 2014, 2013 until today. Ten years strong as champion. Looking at Devin. He kind of imitated and copied Floyd’s image. He wanted to be like Floyd. He did a good thing to do that,” Crawford said.
