‘Slap yourself’ – Terence Crawford tears into WBC in expletive rant after world title stripped

Terence Crawford was not best pleased with the WBC’s decision to strip him of the green and gold world title.

The WBC title was one of four major belts Crawford snatched from Canelo in September to become undisputed 168lbs champion.

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But at the WBC convention in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman announced that Crawford had lost recognition as the organisation’s super middleweight champion over unpaid sanctioning fees.

Sulaiman described Crawford’s unwillingness to hand over $300,000 to the WBC as a “slap in the face” and complained that he hadn’t recieved an apology from ‘Bud’.

Hours later, Crawford took to Instagram Live to fire back.

“I saw Mauricio had a lot to say about me not paying him $300,000, plus another $100,000-something for sanctioning fees. And he said that I didn’t apologize,” Crawford said.

“Who the f*** do you think I am? Boy, you better slap your f****ing self. I ain’t paying your a**** s***.

“What makes you so much better than the other sanctioning bodies?Answer that question – but you.

“You, the WBC, think you are better than everybody, don’t you?

“You have the green belt, which don’t mean f****ing s***.

“The f***ing real belt is The Ring belt, which is free m********…

“You can take the f***ing belt. It’s a trophy anyway.

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“I’m the m******* that is putting his life on the line, not you…

“It irks my nerves that this dude gets on a plane, gets a hotel suite for him and his buddies, they go out for five-star meals and dinners and all of that, and guess who has to pay for it? Us fighters.

“We are paying for you to come out here and have the time of your life. It’s all done on our dime.

“Does that sound right to y’all? It’s crazy, ain’t it, that we have to pay them a sanctioning fee like they are the government, and we’re getting taxed.”

How much do sanctioning fees typically cost?

All four major sanctioning bodies – the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO – typically charge fighters 3 per cent of their purse to compete for their belts.

Sulaiman lowered the fees to 0.6 per cent for Crawford, but received no response from the Omaha puncher or his team, resulting in the belt being vacated.

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The WBC championship committee has now voted for interim champion Christian Mbilli and Britain’s Hamzah Sheeraz to meet for the vacant world title.

Lester Martinez, who held Mbilli to a draw in September, will then be ordered to face the winner.