Ryan Garcia thinks Terence Crawford got out at exactly the right moment, and not in a way that flatters him.
Crawford beat Canelo Alvarez to become undisputed super-middleweight champion, then walked away in December at 38, turning down a rematch with the Mexican. Speaking to FightHype, the WBC welterweight champion said the timing is what separates Crawford from the word being attached to him.
I don’t —- with him, at all, and I would love to fight him but he is already retired, see. He got out before the young and hungry fighters came through, he knew that the young lions were coming in. He owes me.
His argument rests on a comparison.
Every great champion does it, you have got to fight one of those young, hungry ———-. Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman when George Foreman was a young, hungry animal, that is what made him into a legend.
Then the distinction he is drawing.
Terence Crawford is not a legend yet, I don’t know why people are trying to talk about ‘he is a legend’. He is an all-time-great, he is a Hall-of-Famer, but a legend? Nah, not even close. There’s a lot of big moments that should have happened, I am here to become a legend.
He also rejects the idea that Crawford’s body made the decision for him.
He owes me a fight, he owes [Jaron] Ennis a fight, he owes Vergil Ortiz Jr. a fight, he should have ran it. He still had so much in the tank. They are trying to act like he was old and had injuries, bro didn’t have none of that —-.
The two have been going at each other for a while, and Garcia has said he believes a win over Conor Benn could pull Crawford back. That fight is on September 12.
