Tyson Fury has been retired for a year, and he is being lured out of retirement for a fight that is expected to pay him a career high.
In Crawford’s case, the timing is viewed as suspicious by some fans on social media. They consider it strategic on 38-year-old Bud’s part. In other words, some people feel he is using it as leverage, retiring to be offered an enormous purse to come out of retirement.
They believe this is a negotiating tactic by Crawford to get a bigger purse from Turki Alalshikh for his rematch with Canelo Alvarez in 2026. Crawford’s trainer, Bernie ‘Tha Boxer’ Davis, stated in an interview with MillCity Boxing, “One hundred million—neither seventy-five nor ninety-one. If it’s not that, then what’s the point?”
Understandably, some fans doubt that Crawford is seriously retiring, but is instead using this as a ploy to get the $100M purse for a second fight with Alvarez. He was paid $50 million for the first fight last September.
It is unclear if Turki intended to offer Terence the large purse that his trainer Bernie mentioned as his asking price for returning for another fight. That’s a lot of money for a fight that doesn’t do the same numbers on Netflix as Jake Paul vs. brought in Mike Tyson. That event had 108 million views. In contrast, Canelo vs. Crawford has done 414 million views on Netflix.
Crawford’s performance wasn’t too entertaining against Canelo in what Turki called, “The Fight of the Century.” Bud moved around the ring for most of the fight, briefly coming alive in rounds nine and twelve. It wasn’t a must-see type of effort.
