Terence Crawford did everything right, which is why his retirement may feel so wrong - Yahoo

Crawford retires undefeated, undefeated and in complete control, leaving behind something rare at this age: the flag.There is no clear successor yet.

Terence Crawford has done everything right, so his retirement may seem very wrong

Finally, Terence Crawford is difficult to choose a great time to leave the lasko, Win up in his to-morbals's fields.

"Every fighter knows this moment will come," Crawford said Tuesday on his YouTube channel, announcing his surprise retirement from the sport."We just don't know when."

The American fighter, the five-weight world champion, got two of the most important victories of the millennium when he defeated Errol Spence Jr. in the biggest fight of all time at welterweight in 2023, then he jumped three divisions to face Saul "Canelo" Alvarez at super middleweight and beat him, too, last September.

Speculation then surfaced that Crawford could face Canelo again in 2026, face a middleweight like Janibek Alimkanuri for a sixth-division title shot, or even face Jake Paul or UFC champion Ilia Topria in a crossover event.After years of underpayment and financial leverage, Crawford has finally reached the most lucrative stage in boxing.There, platform, visibility, and power equalize one game a year, a major character on Netflix, and money between generations up to age 40.He was entitled to make money.

But then he left at 38 instead.

"I'm walking away from the competition not because I finished the fight but because I won another fight," he said."You go on your own terms."

Leave as a great and no longer have to prove anything.#CrawfordERA #1P4P #3xUndisputed #5DivisionChampion #4xLinealChampion #BWAAFighterOfTheYear #2xEspyAwardWinnerhttps://t.co/GwK3TYnIz6 pic.twitter.com/4DElhAJXIg

— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) December 16, 2025

Given his passion for boxing, Crawford did everything right

He left with his powers intact as his net worth had never been higher, and he topped Uncrown's pound-for-pound list as the No. 1 fighter in all of boxing.

Few fighters get the chance to finish the sport, but that's what every boxer does.After all, Crawford retired from boxing like Floyd Mayweather, instead of being finished by the sport like Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, or Roy Jones Jr., among many others.

By that metric, Crawford is targeting younger fighters rather than being the sport's latest cautionary tale.

However, for years "Bud" was underestimated and shunned.

He was undisputed at 140 pounds while few were watching, moved up to the politically sealed welterweight division, and remained very private, making fans think they knew him for a long time.

His elite techniques appeared much earlier than world recognition.

And so, despite faint and superficial praise, until he destroyed Spence -- in his 40th pro fight -- "Bud" finally took his prime.Although that might have been a fitting end point for Crawford.But two years later, he epitomized the pound-for-pound mentality of beating "Canelo" in his division in Mexico.

Boxing, the press and its fans, only knew of his greatness before he announced his retirement on Tuesday.And that is what makes this curtain to call confusing, because it is a great time to go and one that feels like it will never end.

Maybe it's true that Crawford is leaving like Mayweather, but also that he's leaving wealth without a mention on the table, having reached boxing's richest moment only to walk away.

His absence also hurts American boxing at a critical time.

Crawford was never meant to be the future.He was the current bridge and testament to American excellence while the next wave of David Benavidez, Jesse Rodriguez, Devin Haney and Shakur Stevenson arrived in his wake.

But now that bridge is gone.

He leaves Japan's Naoya Inoue and Ukraine's Oleksandr Usyk as faces of the sport, with perhaps only Jake Paul as the strongest American challenger.

The way Crawford managed his career may have been unusual, but neither was his retirement.Quietly, without a farewell tour or compromise, and, as he himself put it, 'on his terms'.

Crawford has been compared to Michael Jordan in boxing for some time because of the obviousness of his ruthless competitiveness.As Jordan, he didn't leave because the game was pushed out.

He just left because he was done with it.

I put this because boxing happens to have nothing to do with it.

With sports, there was no prostitution, no enjoyment, no giving.Just a quiet performance on his own terms, at the exact moment boxing finally organized around him.

Crawford leaves undefeated, intact and in total control, leaving behind something rare at this time: a standard.

For now, there is no obvious successor to fill it.