Teofimo Lopez says Terence Crawford failed to become the undisputed super middleweight champion from his victory over four-belt champion Canelo Alvarez because he refused to pay the WBC their sanction money for their fight last September.
Why Crawford never held all four belts
Lopez stated that Crawford did not complete the process to become the undisputed at 168. He paid for three, but did not pay the WBC’s fee to hold their belt, meaning he never owned the belt. He was a triple belt champion.
Crawford will have to settle for being a former two-division undisputed champion, not a three. If he wants to go uncontested in three divisions, he will have to circle back and fight the winner of the Christian Mbilli vs. Hamzah Sheeraz fight. These two will fight for the vacant WBC 168-lb title. Crawford will need a lot of luck to beat the winner of that fight because these are big punchers and young.
It doesn’t work for Crawford to say he was the undisputed at 168 because the WBC belt was never fully owned by him. It’s like a person who goes into Marine Corps boot camp, then decides to jump the fence in San Diego and strike out during boot camp at MCRD. They can’t go around telling people they’re an ex-Marine because they haven’t completed the process. It’s the same with Crawford. He can’t go home on the block and bragging about something that never happened.
He did not complete the crucial final part of becoming the undisputed champion at 168 by paying the sanctioning fee to the WBC. He chose to be tight-lipped when it came to the $300,000 fee for the belt, which was a reduced fee specially given to him by the WBC from the $1.5 million he had to pay for the $50 million he made.
WBC Fee: The Missing Piece
“Canelo and Crawford were indeed for the undisputed. It was indeed accurate as long as they paid for the sanctioning bodies, but Crawford left one out, and that was the WBC. So, by default on paper, he is not undisputed,” Teofimo Lopez tells the media today, pointing out that Terence Crawford never officially became the undisputed super middleweight champion because he refused to pay the WBC.
$300K Grovel Job at WBC HQ
Is it too late for Crawford? He could try to go to the WBC and crawl in with $300,000 in hand and ask them for another shot. Maybe if he brings the money to their headquarters, apologizes to the WBC president and agrees to pay the full amount of $1.5 million, they will give him a second chance. It’s worth a try. Terence needs the WBC belt to make history and become an undisputed three-division champion. It also strengthens his negotiating muscle for a rematch with Canelo.
“No, he didn’t pay for the sanctioned belt,” Alvarez said when a media member in the crowd asked him if Crawford was the undisputed 168-lb champion for his win over Canelo last September. Regardless of whether Mauricio didn’t want to or not, he didn’t pay for the sanction belt. So by default he was stripped so it became unified.
“They were able to do that with me for my super WBC belt, and I paid for that sanctioned belt,” Lopez said.
Last updated on 12/10/2025
