Five-division champion Terence Crawford announced on Tuesday that he was retiring from boxing.
The announcement came just three months after Crawford became the only boxer in the four-belt era to become undisputed champion in three weight classes, which he accomplished in September when he defeated Canelo Alvarez to win the undisputed super middleweight title.
Crawford posted on social media that he was “leaving a great player with nothing more to prove.”
“I’m stepping away from the competition not because I’m done fighting, but because I’ve won a different kind of battle. The one where you walk away on your own terms,” Crawford said on his YouTube channel. “This isn’t goodbye, it’s the end of one fight and the beginning of another.”
He added: “I have given this sport every breath I have. Every scar, every triumph, every piece of my heart. I have come to terms with what comes next. And now the time has come. Thank you.”
Crawford, 38, retires from the sport with a record of 42-0 and 31 knockout victories. In addition to being the undisputed super middleweight champion, he became the undisputed welterweight champion by defeating Errol Spence Jr. by knockout in July 2023 and was the undisputed junior welterweight champion when he defeated Julius Indongo in August 2017.
Crawford has hosted 18 major world championships in five weight classes: lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight, junior middleweight and super middleweight. He topped ESPN’s Top 100 Players of 2025 and retired as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.
“I’ve been chasing something my whole life,” Crawford said. “Not the stripes, not the money, not the headlines. But that feeling you get when the world doubts you and you keep showing up and proving everyone wrong.”
Fighting out of Omaha, Nebraska, Crawford made his professional debut in 2008 after failing to make the 2008 U.S. Olympic team. His debut was not met with as much enthusiasm as his peers and went unnoticed until he took the stage on three days’ notice to face Breidis Prescott in his first televised fight in the co-main event of the Brandon Rios-Mike Alvarado 2 event on HBO in 2013. He easily overtook Prescott to win his first major world title when he defeated Ricky Burns for the WBO lightweight title in 2014.
Crawford has struggled to start fights against bigger names in boxing and separated from Top Rank Promotions after a stoppage win over Shawn Porter in 2021 to test free agency. The move paid off and Crawford signed a contract to fight unified welterweight champion Spence to determine the undisputed champion. In a breakthrough performance, he dominated Spence, cementing himself as one of the best players of his generation.
However, Crawford was not satisfied and took the fight to Alvarez, who was competing three weight classes above him at 168 pounds. After defeating Israil Madrimov in his lone 154-pound fight in 2024, Crawford secured a September fight with Alvarez.
Despite competing at a lighter weight, Crawford brilliantly defeated Alvarez and won by unanimous decision. There was speculation that Crawford would seek a fourth undisputed title at 160 pounds or fight YouTuber-turned-award-winner Jake Paul, but Crawford chose to retire instead.