Adorned with his expensive $188,000 Ring belt trophy, Terence Crawford took part in a parade today in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, celebrating his victory over the Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez on September 13, 2025.
Critics Say $188K Ring Belt Means Nothing
Crawford gets to keep the valuable gold Ring belt as a memento, even if he’s stripped of his undisputed super middleweight championship, vacates, or is beaten. It’s a keepsake-type belt, celebrating his win over the 35-year-old Canelo.
Fans view the $188,000 Ring belt victory by Crawford as a meaningless one because Alvarez is a faded fighter who kept his spot by avoiding the sharks. As such, Crawford’s expensive $188K Ring trophy is a superficial one.
Bud was maneuvered into the spot; he didn’t earn it by fighting the top contenders, who would have likely weeded him out. In other words, they view Crawford as a person who was placed in that position without having to earn it. He’s like a puppet placed in that spot, looking fake, a pretender sitting on a throne.
Crawford (42-0, 13 KOs) captured the undisputed super middleweight championship belt from Canelo, beating him by a 12-round unanimous decision by the scores 115-113, 115-113, and 116-112.
Critics Claim Crawford Avoids Apex Contenders
I believe the chances of Crawford holding onto the four belts at 168 are slim, and can only be made possible if he’s matched carefully, avoiding the apex contenders the way many believe Canelo had been doing to hold onto his titles. If Crawford goes up against the likes of David Benavidez, Christian Mbilli, Lester Martinez, or Osleys Iglesias, it’s doubtful in my view that he’ll be victorious.
In an interview today before the parade in Omaha, Crawford sounded bitter that he wasn’t receiving full credit from fans and the media, arguing that they’re making excuses for why Canelo lost the fight by viewing him as washed. “When you so great and you so much ahead of your competition,” said Crawford.
Omaha Parade Can’t Erase Close Scorecards
For the record, the Canelo-Crawford fight was razor-close, with Terence doing very little through eight rounds, taking big shots from the more aggressive Canelo, and only coming on in the last four rounds from 9 through 12, to pull out the victory.
The performance by Crawford was anything but great unless you look at it from an upside-down perspective, viewing lackluster as “great.” It was not a remotely impressive performance by Crawford, who looked old and barely better than the washed-up-looking Canelo.
In many respects, their comments are valid. Alvarez came close to losing his last fight against one of the judges’ scorecards against William Scull earlier this year on May 3, 2025.
Fans Refuse To Credit Crawford’s Late Career Win
“It’s a lot of people changing their narrative, ‘We’re watching something great fight now. We’re not appreciating it. It’s sad to say, we’re waking up at the tail-end of his career. We didn’t realize it until now when he’s doing extraordinary stuff, like going up two weight classes to fight the best fighter in that division, the #1 guy that is ‘The Face of Boxing,’” said Terence Crawford to the media today, arguing that he’s being praised by fans until now late in his career after beating Canelo Alvarez.
“The way that I handled that, something had to be wrong. Canelo had to be washed, or Canelo wasn’t in it,” said Bud Crawford about fans who are discrediting him for his victory over 35-year-old Canelo.
The hardcore boxing fans who follow the sport aren’t giving Crawford credit because they don’t recognize Canelo as the best fighter in the 168-lb division. They view the Mexican star as having been washed up since his one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to Dmitry Bivol on May 7, 2022.
Canelo Preserved His #1 Spot Artificially
The fans note that Alvarez had artificially preserved his #1 spot in the super middleweight division by swerving all the high-level fighters that would have potentially beaten him. Instead of Canelo fighting the best, he defended his super middleweight titles against these fighters:
- Jaime Munguia
- William Scull
- John Ryder
- Edgar Berlanga
- Gennadiy Golovkin: [Note: GGG was 40]
Canelo didn’t fight the true top guys in the division for three years leading up to his title defense against Terence Crawford on September 13, 2025.
For whatever reason, Alvarez chose not to defend against the apex 168-lb contenders, like David Benavidez and David Morrell, while they were still campaigning at super middleweight. Canelo kept his spot as the King of the division by swerving the sharks that would take his crown.
The fighters at 168 that Canelo didn’t fight that may have beaten him many times are from this group:
- David Benavidez
- David Morrell
- Christian Mbilli
- Lester Martinez
- Osleys Iglesias
- Diego Pacheco
“I see people saying Turki paid Canelo to lose. I think when you’re that much better than the competition, people aren’t going to give you credit until you sit down and look at it and just be like, ‘That dude was good,’” said Crawford.
Last Updated on 09/27/2025
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