WBC strips Terence Crawford of 168-pound title on claims of failed sanctioning fee payments

Terence Crawford is undisputed super middleweight champion no more. Crawford was stripped of the WBC championship after WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman claimed the fighter had failed to pay sanctioning fees for two consecutive fights, including his career-defining win over Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in September.

“He forgot how he got to make $50 million,” Sulaiman said. “It’s very unfortunate that the WBC did not even receive an acknowledgement of receipt nor anything in response to any of those communications.”

Sulaiman claimed Crawford failed to pay $300,000 in sanctioning fees for the Alvarez fight, which came after also failing to pay sanctioning fees for his August 2024 win over Israil Madrimov. Sulaiman said that the sanctioning body was not looking for its standard 3% fee, but instead 0.6%. He went on to claim that the money would have gone to the Boxers Fund.

A former undisputed welterweight champion, Crawford fought once — against Madrimov — at junior middleweight before jumping an additional two weight classes to fight Alvarez.

While many believed Alvarez would be too big for Crawford, Crawford’s elite boxing skills allowed him to dominate the contest and take a unanimous decision by scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113, ending Alvarez’s reign as undisputed champion at 168 pounds.

“It is with deep regret, deep sadness, that with all the efforts, support and steps the WBC took in good faith [for Crawford],” Sulaiman said. “… the WBC was instrumental in making that fight, the [championship] ring we made [for him] … just to receive a slap in the face is sad.

“It’s very complicated to withdraw a title from a champion — it hurts deeply. Terence Crawford has been very successful, a [five-division] world champion for 13 years. It is just terrible. Not even a thank you, or ‘I’m sorry.’ No response.”

The WBC announced that interim champion Christian Mbilli would face Hamzah Sheeraz for the full world championship following the decision to strip Crawford.