Boxing Does What Boxing Does… Poor Crawford
By Eddie Sanchez
Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford is no longer boxing’s undisputed welterweight champion. His reign was short-lived to no fault of his own… the boxing industry clipped him of his IBF title.
Numerous sources have confirmed the IBF has ceased recognition of Crawford’s reign due to his inability to satisfy a mandatory title defense obligation.
The unbeaten three-division champ, who is the first man to be undisputed in two weight classes in the four-belt era, inherited interim IBF titlist Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis as an overdue title defense, though he is unable to comply with the IBF’s negotiation rules due to his contractually bound rematch clause with Errol Spence Jr.
Crawford’s team went nearly the full length of the 30-day negotiation period before informing the IBF of its commitment to a second fight with Spence. Sanctioning bodies generally do not honor rematch clauses as a justifiable exception for mandatory title fights.
IBF Rule 3.B., in fact, prohibits the practice. The frustrating thing is most big fights tend to violate that rule.
“No contract for a Championship contest shall contain any clause or any provision, whatsoever, guaranteeing or in any way assuring or promising either contestant a return Championship contest where such clause or provision interferes with the mandatory defense of a title.”
It was a risk that Crawford was willing to take to secure a career-defining victory and a life-changing, healthy eight-figure payday to go along with it.
“Based on the forgoing, the IBF has withdrawn recognition of Terence Crawford as the IBF Welterweight world champion,” confirmed the IBF.
Ennis claimed the interim IBF title in a twelve-round, unanimous decision victory over Karen Chukhadzhian in January. The IBF agreed to sanction the fight under such terms given that Ennis did not have a path to immediately challenge for the title.
Said path is no longer needed, and Ennis will now hope that the IBF’s ruling will be enough to draw him closer to a fight with Crawford after Bud’s pending rematch with Spence concludes at some point in early 2024.
This is the second ruling in a matter of months that the IBF enacted which, of course, as boxing tends to do, impacts the biggest fights in the sport. The IBF ruled that the eventual Usyk vs Fury rematch will not have the IBF belt on the line, as Filip Hrgovic and Otto Wallin, the #1 and #2 ranked heavyweight contenders, per the sanctioning body, will fight for the soon-to-be-vacant belt.
Boxing is an unforgiving sport, both in the ring and in the conference room. Unfortunately, the IBF has chosen, for the second time, to make themselves the main character in some of the most prominent fights in the sport.
