While there's seemingly very little that Terence Crawford is unable to do when it comes to boxing, it's trash talking that the former undisputed junior welterweight champion prefers to avoid ahead of fights.
"Maybe it's the way I was brought up," Crawford, who grew up on the north side of Omaha, Nebraska, told CBS Sports' "In This Corner" podcast. "We didn't do too much talking. The ones that talk a lot get hit in the mouth. I'm about showing what I can do instead of telling you what I can do. So the people that always run their mouth always end up short in the long run."
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If there's an individual or group that Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) is referencing, it's undoubtedly WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn and his team of trainer Glenn Rushton and co-promoter Dean Lonegran of Duco Events.
Ever since Crawford, 30, was forced to postpone his original April date to challenge Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs), the former Australian school teacher who upset Manny Pacquiao by disputed decision last July, Horn's team has called him everything from a "princess" and "soft c---," insinuating that the injury was fake.
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Still Crawford believes the talent gap is wide enough entering Saturday's fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (ESPN+, 9:30 p.m. ET) that any form of bantering will only play into Horn's hands.
"I just laughed. It wasn't nothing else to get under my skin that they could say, really," Crawford said. "I just look at it as they want me to go out there and fight reckless and it's not going to happen.
"I don't care what they think or what they say. It's not them. My health is the number one importance to my career so I'm not going to jeopardize anything for my career just for one fight that I can push back."
Crawford, who became the first 140-pound fighter to unify all four recognized titles, will make his welterweight debut in a division loaded with names and big-money opportunities. The problem for Crawford, despite earning universal claim as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, has been how much his commercial upside has been compromised by which side of boxing's political line he stands on.
Although Crawford is promoted by Top Rank and has seen his exposure increased since Bob Arum signed a four-year deal with ESPN, the majority of elite fighters in and around his division are represented by Premier Boxing Champions' founder Al Haymon and regularly fight on Showtime. Arum, who sued Haymon shortly after the 2015 launch of PBC before both sides settled the following year, rarely does business with him.
Considering the platform and stage, a victory over Horn would certainly be a strong opening statement at welterweight. Yet Crawford is still lacking the kind of career-defining fight to elevate his name into the consciousness of casual sports fans thanks to Top Rank's thin roster at welterweight and the lack of marquee names overall at 140 pounds.
If there is one fight that could've and -- depending upon your stance -- should've already happened to help Crawford boost his brand, it's Manny Pacquiao. Instead, five years after Crawford made his premium cable debut on HBO, a meeting with the former eight-division champion has remained unfulfilled. The fact that both share the same promoter hasn't helped bring it any closer, either.
"That's not something that you can ask me because that's a fight that we have been asking for and for some reason we didn't get it so we are moving on," Crawford said. "Like I said back then, I'm young, I'm hungry and my career is going on. Manny Pacquiao is at the end of his career and he only has a couple of more fights left in him and he deserves to go out however he wants to go out, being that he has fought anybody that were willing to fight when he was fighting top contenders."
The idea of Crawford facing Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) certainly hit a roadblock when the Filipino icon lost his 147-pound title to Horn. But Arum never stopped trying, including the idea of having Pacquiao face faded welterweight Mike Alvarado as a pay-per-view co-main event below Horn-Crawford as a way to hype a future fight between the two.
Pacquiao, 39, revealed he was insulted by Arum's suggestion and has continued to avoid Crawford, choosing instead to return on July 15 in Malaysia against Lucas Matthysse. Despite the fact that Pacquiao benefitted from a similar PPV passing-of-the-torch fight against Oscar De La Hoya in 2008, Crawford isn't one who believes Pacquiao owes him a similar opportunity.
"To tell you the truth, he don't owe nobody nothing," Crawford said. "He done paid his dues. In my eyes, he done did everything he was supposed to do and that he can still do in the sport of boxing. For somebody to say that he owes boxing anything is absurd. He doesn't owe boxing anything. Boxing is not going to give you anything but brain damage afterwards so it really doesn't matter."
As far as who won the highly controversial Horn-Pacquiao fight, Crawford admits he didn't score it but believes it could've gone either way.
"Horn made it tough in there," Crawford said. "He was the bigger, stronger fighter and kind of bullied Pacquiao into fighting an ugly, dirty fight that he didn't want to fight. He cut Pacquiao on the head and the eye with head butts. He was elbowing in there and was roughhousing Pacquiao and I believe that's what they intended to do from the jump."
Although Crawford is honest and absolute in saying he doesn't see an avenue for victory of any kind from Horn against him, he's also not willing to dismiss the Australian as a one-hit wonder whose 15 minutes of fame is ending.
"He's a viable welterweight, no question," Crawford said. "He does a lot of things that a lot of people don't see in there that has helped him to get to where he is right now. He has some skills. I'm not going to discredit him and say that he doesn't. At the same time, I just felt like my boxing IQ and my fighting ability is on a whole different level."
Should he get past Horn, Crawford doesn't believe a bout with P4P king and fellow Top Rank fighter Vasiliy Lomachenko is realistic to even consider because of the two divisions that separate them. Not only is Crawford not willing to move back down in weight, he said he's pretty sure Lomachenko won't be coming up to welterweight anytime soon.
Crawford's breakthrough fight would ultimately need to come against a PBC welterweight, provided the business and network issues could be ironed out. Until he beats Horn, Crawford isn't willing to talk about the likes of Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia or IBF champion Errol Spence Jr., who faces mandatory opponent Carlos Ocampo on June 16.
While many look at Spence-Crawford as a dream fight, akin to this generation's version of Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns or Felix Trinidad-De La Hoya, Spence told BoxingScene.com last week he believes it will take at least another year before it can be realistic.
"Well, basically, let me clean up my side of the street," Spence said. "Basically, I'm saying my side of the street, you know, Al Haymon and Showtime. Let me clean up my side of the street and I'll come over there and take up that side of the block, too. That's what I'm doing.
"Terence Crawford, well, he don't have a belt yet. But if he does get the belt from Jeff Horn, you know, I'm coming to take that belt, too, because I wanna be undisputed welterweight champion of the world."
