JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES. COVER: TERENCE CRAWFORD WEARS A FLANNEL SUIT BY TODD SNYDER, COTTON SHIRT BY ETON, POCKET SQUARE BY THOM SWEENEY AND LEATHER SHOES BY FERRAGAMO. WATCH: AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK CHRONOGRAPH.After toppling Canelo \u00c1lvarez in the fight of the year, the undefeated boxing champion has earned more than $100 million in the ring. Now 38, and with Warren Buffett in his corner, he is staring down the ultimate opponent\u2014Father Time.<\/p>\n
Days before the biggest fight of his career, a championship bout against Canelo \u00c1lvarez in Las Vegas in September, unbeaten Terence \u201cBud\u201d Crawford received a presumptuous addition to his watch collection. WatchGuys, a luxury reseller, gifted him a $15,000 Rolex Submariner, and even though he was 48 hours away from facing one of the toughest opponents in boxing history, the inscription on the back of the timepiece boldly predicted his new record: 42-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey believed in me that much that they knew I\u2019m going to win,\u201d says Crawford, 38, reflecting on the victory by unanimous decision from inside B&B Sports Academy, his boxing gym in Omaha, Nebraska. \u201cI had it in my mind that [\u00c1lvarez] wasn\u2019t beating me. There was nothing he could do to win that night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Omaha, Omaha: \u201cI\u2019ve seen an awful lot of fight champions that die bus\u00adted,\u201d Warren Buffett says of Crawford. \u201cI don\u2019t think Bud is going to end up that way at all. He\u2019s got his head screwed on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jamel Toppin for Forbes<\/p>\n
The soft-spoken Crawford has preferred to let his fists do the talking over the course of his 17-year professional career, which includes 31 knockouts, 18 world championships across five divisions and three un\u00addisputed titles. But by jumping up two weight classes to defeat the heavily favored \u00c1lvarez, he cemented his place in the boxing pantheon alongside other prizefighting icons of his era, including Manny Pacquiao and Oleksandr Usyk.<\/p>\n
Such an audacious gamble, putting his undefeated record on the line to fight the much larger \u00c1lvarez, came with an even bigger financial reward: the largest payday of his career. Forbes estimates Crawford earned $50 million that night, pushing his lifetime boxing earnings north of $100 million.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t expect him to spend it all in one place. Crawford has invested in the stock market, and he has amassed a real estate portfolio worth more than $20 million because, as he says, \u201cGod ain\u2019t making more land.\u201d He even insists that his watch collection, which Forbes values between $500,000 and $1 million and features such blue-chip pieces as a Patek Philippe Travel Time Aquanaut, an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph and several Rolexes, is an asset bound to grow in value rather than a flashy indulgence.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking the money I\u2019m making in the ring, I don\u2019t need to rush anything,\u201d he says. \u201cSome people want to rush and take risk, and I\u2019m not a big risk taker when I can\u2019t control it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With agency over his finances, he\u2019ll be damned if he lets a dollar go to waste. In his merchandise business, for example, Crawford once refused to spend an additional 99 cents to add a custom neck tag to a new line of T-shirts that cost $12 to make and sell for $40. And even though he generously picked up a $2,000 dinner tab for a group of 18 friends a couple months ago, he made sure to score a 15%-off coupon beforehand.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s frugal,\u201d says Crawford\u2019s lifelong friend Steven Nelson, the head of operations at his gym. \u201cHe believes in spending money that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s one thing Crawford has in common with the wealthiest resident of his native Omaha, Warren Buffett. The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway is also famously financially prudent, living in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31,500, driving modest cars, eating at McDonald\u2019s and using a flip phone despite his roughly $150 billion fortune.<\/p>\n
Buffett has become a \u201chuge admirer\u201d of Crawford over the years and has attended several of his fights. The 95-year-old Oracle of Omaha even skirted his 10 p.m. bedtime by a few hours in September to watch the \u00c1lvarez match on Netflix. In addition to appreciating Crawford\u2019s prowess in the ring, Buffett is impressed by his fellow Nebraskan\u2019s measured approach to investing.<\/p>\n
Knockout Watches: Crawford\u2019s collection includes (clockwise from top left) a Rolex Deepsea, Hublot Big Bang Meca-10, Rolex Submariner (inscribed with 42-0), Patek Philippe Aquanaut Travel Time, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph, Rolex Sky-Dweller and a Ulysse Nardin Blast Free Wheel Marquetry.<\/p>\n
Jamel Toppin for Forbes<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen an awful lot of fight champions that die bus\u00adted, and the people around them got rich,\u201d Buffett says. \u201cI don\u2019t think Bud is going to end up that way at all. He\u2019s got his head screwed on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The odds certainly weren\u2019t in Crawford\u2019s favor growing up in North Omaha, an area plagued by crime and poverty. In 2008, the then-20-year-old was hit by a bullet in the back of his head while sitting in his car after a dice game. (It missed his brain by inches.) Watching his family struggle financially, a young Crawford picked up a habit of stashing every dollar away. Eventually, he realized that \u201cmoney in the shoebox ain\u2019t really saving money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crawford credits his fourth-grade teacher, Jamie Nolette, for playing a key role in opening his eyes to the bigger financial picture and introducing him to an accountant. He also used to spar with former world champion Timothy Bradley, who told him to invest and to form an LLC. That advice would come in handy when Crawford started fighting for purses north of $1 million in 2015.<\/p>\n
The money only got better over the next decade, especially after he acrimoniously split from his former promoter, Bob Arum\u2019s Top Rank Boxing, in 2021. While the biggest fights in the sport eluded Crawford for most of his career, including several failed attempts to face the legendary Pacquiao, he had his moment two years later, demolishing Errol Spence Jr. in nine rounds, reportedly earning $25 million for the fight.<\/p>\n
Crawford\u2019s longtime coach, Bernie Davis, said it would take $100 million to get him back in the ring.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIn matchup after matchup, Crawford has consistently defied the expectations of a lot of people who, early on, did not think he had superstar potential,\u201d says sportscaster Jim Lampley, who spent 30 years as the voice of HBO Championship Boxing. \u201cHe just understood it was a matter of being patient enough, following his own principles, fighting the way he can fight and everything would turn out all right. And it did.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Crawford isn\u2019t thinking about a rematch with \u00c1lvarez, and he isn\u2019t ready to decide what\u2019s next for his boxing career, either. (In December, the WBC stripped him of his super middleweight title<\/a>, claiming he failed to pay sanctioning fees for the September fight.) Retiring undefeated, akin to greats like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Rocky Marciano, would be a \u201cblessing,\u201d he says. And he certainly doesn\u2019t have to rush back into the ring for income. Forbes estimates that Crawford earns at least $2 million annually from brand partnerships, inclu\u00adding Crown Casino, Riyadh Season and Everlast, as well as other business endeavors. His longtime coach, Bernie Davis, recently said it would take $100 million to get Crawford back in the ring.<\/p>\n When he does finally hang up his gloves, Crawford wants to dive deeper on his real estate interests. He currently has a mix of nearly 80 properties, residential and commercial, spread across Omaha, Kansas City and Colorado Springs, all paid for in cash. Eventually, he wants to add Las Vegas to that group. His portfolio operates at a loss right now, which he expects to change in a few years, but he\u2019s not willing to chase a quick windfall to make that happen.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to take chances,\u201d Crawford says. \u201cI take too many chances in the ring.\u201d<\/p>\n More from ForbesForbesThe World\u2019s Highest-Paid Soccer Players 2025By Justin Birnbaum<\/a>ForbesThe Savannah Bananas, Baseball\u2019s Zaniest Team, Are Now Worth Half A Billion DollarsBy Justin Birnbaum<\/a>ForbesThe NFL\u2019s Favorite Mentalist Already Knows You\u2019re Going To Click On ThisBy Justin Birnbaum<\/a>ForbesCanelo \u00c1lvarez Flexes His Business MuscleBy Brett Knight<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES. COVER: TERENCE CRAWFORD WEARS A FLANNEL SUIT BY TODD SNYDER, COTTON SHIRT BY ETON,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,186273,85,186275,186272,186271,186276,186274,186277],"class_list":["post-333319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-how-rich-is-terence-crawford","tag-sports","tag-terence-crawford-canelo-rematch","tag-terence-crawford-how-rich","tag-terence-crawford-net-worth","tag-terence-crawford-next-opponent","tag-terence-crawford-omaha","tag-terence-crawford-watch-collection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}