BORN TO BATTLE

The warrior gene runs through the blood of Terence Crawford. His grandfather, father and uncle had all trained at the C.W. Boxing Club in Omaha, Nebraska. The gym’s owner, Carl Washington, was also Crawford’s neighbor. Washington approached a then seven-year-old Terence about doing the same as a means of keeping the youngster out of trouble. 

“Carl saw me on the streets,” said Crawford, a proud family man who know has six children of his own. “He knew I was one of those little bad kids that wanted to fight around the corner. I told him I don't talk to strangers, and I went home to tell my mom.”

By the time Debra Crawford heard her son's story, Washington was at their front door. Soon, Crawford was at the boxing club being mentored by trainer Midge Minor.

“I was getting kicked out of school for fighting. Midge kicked me out of the gym because we were getting into it. I didn't care. I played football. I played basketball. I wrestled. In all those sports, I was getting into it with my teammates,” said Crawford, a talented, multi-sport athlete. 

“I just had that temper. I was seven years old when I started boxing – it was just something to do. I didn't like just being at home, not doing nothing. I liked it – I just liked to fight. If it didn't have anything to do with fighting, it wasn't fun. That’s what I liked to do, fight."

Minor became a father figure for Crawford. But in his teenage years, Crawford developed an interest in roaming the streets of north Omaha with friends. 

One day Crawford became involved in a game of dice. While counting his winnings in a car, Crawford was shot in the head. With blood dripping down his shoulder and back, Crawford drove to the hospital. Crawford was fortunate that the bullet didn’t enter his skull.

"It went through the window, hit me and bounced out. The only reason, the doctor said, that it didn't go through was because the window slowed it down. I was blessed. That's when I sat down and just thought about life,” Crawford said. 

“You’re supposed to be in the house getting ready for a fight, and you're out here shooting dice and getting shot. You hang with those types of people, that's what happens. Ever since then, I've got a purpose. I could’ve been dead at that moment.”

Crawford was a gold medalist in both the 2006 National Pal Championships in Oxnard, California and the 2006 Blue & Gold National Championships in Carson, California. Crawford earned a silver medal in the 2006 U.S. National Golden Gloves Championships in Omaha, and a bronze in the 2006 U.S. National Championships in Colorado Springs.

In 2007, Crawford earned a gold medal in the U.S. Pan American Games Box-Offs in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a bronze medal in the U.S. National Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as well as in the Pan American Games Qualifier in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. 

“I'm naturally right-handed. I had about 70 amateur fights – it was probably like, 60 wins, 10 losses,” said Crawford, who owns amateur victories over future champions Mikey Garcia and Danny Garcia. “I remember all of those fights against Danny Garcia, Mikey Garcia, Diego Magdaleno. I still watch them from time to time. It wasn't a hard fight with Mikey – Danny Garcia was a harder fight for me."

Minor and Crawford's current manager, Brian “BoMac” McIntyre, had visions of Crawford becoming Omaha's first Olympic boxer since Carl Vinciquerra in 1936. 

But Crawford had bigger goals. 

"To be honest, I never wanted to be an Olympic gold medalist," Crawford said. "Midge and BoMac, they wanted me to stay in the amateurs and win a gold medal because they know how tough it is coming out of Nebraska. I wanted to be a world champion."

TURNING PRO

Crawford’s debut was a 26-second stoppage in March 2008 over Brian Cummings, who entered the ring at 2-0 (2 KOs). He ended that year with a second-round TKO of Michael Williams in November, rising to 5-0 (3 KOs).

A four-round unanimous in March 2009 over Travis Hartman was followed by four straight knockouts, the last in December by second-round TKO over Corey Somerville. In 2010, Crawford rose to 12-0 (9 KOs) with stoppages over Marty Robbins and Ron Boyd.

Crawford’s 2011 consisted of a first-round TKO of Anthony Mora in February and a second-round TKO over Derrick Campos in July before ending the year with an eight-round unanimous decision over Angel Rios.

Crawford continued to flash power to go along with his sublime skills, delivering four stoppage wins in 2012 to improve to 19-0 (15 KOs).

In March 2013, Crawford scored his biggest victory to date, a 10-round unanimous decision over Breidis Prescott. He followed that up with a sixth-round TKO of Alejandro Sanabria in June. Then that October, won a 10-round unanimous decision over the previously undefeated Alex Klimov.

FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

On March 1, 2014, Crawford traveled overseas to challenge WBO lightweight world champion Ricky Burns at the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Burns’ native Glasgow, Scotland. The location made no difference. Crawford dominated, winning a wide 12-round unanimous decision to capture his first world title. 

Crawford made his first title defense on June 28, 2014, stopping the previously unbeaten Yuriorkis Gamboa in nine rounds. Bud closed out the banner year with a 12-round unanimous decision over Ray Beltran in November. 

Those three performances earned him the Boxing Writers Association of America’s award for the 2014 Fighter of the Year.

UNDISPUTED

In April 2015, Crawford rose in weight to become the WBO 140-pound champion with a sixth-round TKO of Thomas Dulorme. He made six defenses at 140, snatching the WBC belt in July 2016 with a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Viktor Postol.

On August 19, 2017, Crawford took on unified WBA/IBF champion Julius Indongo for the undisputed 140-pound title. Crawford was simply electric, putting Indongo away with a beautiful body shot in the third round for a historic victory. 

Having conquered yet another division, Crawford then rose to welterweight for his next fight, winning the WBO World Welterweight Title with a ninth-round TKO over Australia’s Jeff Horn. With the win, Crawford was now a three-division world champion and widely considered the best fighter in the sport. 

Crawford quickly established himself among the 147-pound elite. In October 2018, he stopped the previously unbeaten Jose Benavidez Jr. in the 12th round. He followed that up with a sixth-round TKO win over two-division champ Amir Khan in April 2019. Crawford ended the year with a ninth-round TKO of then-unbeaten slugger Egidijus Kavaliauskas in December. In November 2020, he powered through former champion Kell Brook inside four rounds. 

On November 20, 2021, Crawford staked his claim as the world’s top welterweight with a two-knockdown, 10th-round TKO of two-time world champion Shawn Porter. It was the first time Porter had ever been stopped in his career. 

UNDISPUTED … AND UNPRECEDENTED

Following a one-year layoff, Crawford returned in December 2022 with a sixth-round stoppage over David Avanesyan. Crawford’s record in world title bouts was now an impressive 17-0 (14 KOs). The win over Avanesyan set the stage for boxing’s biggest and best match: a showdown between Crawford and undefeated, unified WBC, WBA and IBF World Welterweight Champion, Errol Spence Jr. 

The highly anticipated showdown took place in front of a sellout crowd of 19,990 at T-Mobile Arena in a Premier Boxing Champions headliner live on SHOWTIME Pay-Per-View. 

But what was expected to be a highly competitive, 50-50 matchup, turned into one of the finest performances fans had witnessed in recent years. Crawford emphatically stamped his place in the history books with a ninth-round TKO over Spence to become the first undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt era.

“It means everything because of who I took the belts from,” said Crawford. “They talked bad about me. They said I wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t beat these welterweights. I just kept my head to the sky and kept praying to God that I would get the opportunity to show the world how great Terence Crawford is. Tonight, I believe I showed how great I am.”

After years of build-up, Spence came out aggressively in the opening round, jabbing and attacking Crawford’s body. Crawford, who is known for fighting from both the southpaw and orthodox stances, fought primarily as a southpaw and scored his first knockdown in round two with a powerful right cross that caught Spence off balance and sent him down for the first time in his career.

“We practice that,” said Crawford. “Normally in camp we do a flick and jab. But we knew that wasn’t going to work with Errol Spence because he’s durable, he’s strong. So, we had to practice a strong firm jab. The jab hit him and stopped him in his tracks.”

Spence came out in round three determined to turn the tide after the knockdown, throwing big shots, including a left hook that landed cleanly early. However, Crawford was able to withstand the attack and showed his precision by landing a clean counter right that again staggered Spence.

In round seven, Crawford dropped Spence twice, once with a clean right uppercut early on and again late in the round with a right hook. Crawford led 79-70 on all three cards at the time of the stoppage and dominated the CompuBox stats with an 185 to 96 advantage in punches landed and an astounding 50% connect rate.

Post-fight, Crawford showed his respect for Spence stepping up to the plate and making the super fight happen and spoke to the historic nature of the matchup.

“Like I said before, I only dreamed of being a world champion,” said Crawford. “I’m an overachiever. Nobody believed in me when I was coming up, but I made everybody a believer. I want to thank Spence and his team because without him none of this would have been possible.”