{"id":821202,"date":"2026-07-24T16:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821202\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T16:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:28:08","slug":"terence-crawford-says-world-champion-shouldve-accepted-rematch-to-prove-he-wasnt-at-his-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821202\/","title":{"rendered":"Terence Crawford says world champion should’ve accepted rematch to prove he ‘wasn’t at his best’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Terence Crawford<\/a> has questioned why one of his former opponents, who he defeated in emphatic fashion, allowed their potential rematch to fall by the wayside.<\/p>\n

\u2018Bud\u2019 ultimately retired as an unbeaten world champion in December, having become a three-division undisputed king and surefire Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n

And while some fights were closer than others, there was never a demand for him to rematch any opponent, despite talks of a second encounter with Canelo Alvarez.<\/p>\n

Even then, many felt Crawford had dethroned the Mexican so convincingly last September that there was no reason for him to run it back with the super-middleweight.<\/p>\n

As for his undisputed welterweight triumph over Errol Spence Jr in 2023, there were similar feelings expressed about a possible rematch which, based on Crawford\u2019s ninth-round stoppage, seemed entirely unnecessary at the time.<\/p>\n

Yet despite this general perception, Spence nonetheless activated his rematch clause in their contract, only to eventually undergo cataract surgery<\/a> and remain out the ring for three years.<\/p>\n

Since then, though, \u2018The Truth\u2019 has partly blamed his last performance on nightmare training camp<\/a>, while Crawford tells ALL THE SMOKE FIGHT<\/a> that he wonders why Spence was never particularly bullish about an immediate rematch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat fight was in 2023. Why come out with [the excuses] now? He fought the same way with me that he fights in every single fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I knew I wasn\u2019t at my best, and was hindered by something in camp, I wouldn\u2019t have fought. I just can\u2019t grasp myself going into a fight unprepared.<\/p>\n

\u201c[There was also] a rematch clause. So it\u2019s like, \u2018All right, I wasn\u2019t at my best but sign me up [for the rematch]. We\u2019ve gotta do that again\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spence returns to action at Sydney\u2019s Afterpay Arena, Australia, this weekend, taking on fellow former world champion Tim Tszyu<\/a> at 160lbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Terence Crawford has questioned why one of his former opponents, who he defeated in emphatic fashion, allowed their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-821202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821202","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=821202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}