Terence Crawford has revealed whether calling out Ryan Garcia and Floyd Mayweather is, in fact, a sign of his willingness to come out of retirement.
The 39-year-old called time on his illustrious career last December, just a few months after moving up two weight classes and unanimously outpointing Canelo Alvarez.
In doing so, Crawford became a three-division undisputed champion in his first outing at 168lbs, having previously won world titles between 135lbs and 154lbs.
‘Bud’ was arguably most effective at 147lbs, though, as he won each of his eight welterweight outings by stoppage and, most significantly, scored a ninth-round finish over Errol Spence Jr in 2023.
Since his retirement, Crawford has been called out consistently by Garcia, who won the WBC title by dethroning Mario Barrios in February.
Coming off a second-round stoppage of Conor Benn last month, the 28-year-old is now linked to fights with both Mayweather and WBA champion Teofimo Lopez, but continues his back and forth with ‘Bud’.
Equally, Crawford has recently called out both Garcia and Mayweather but, according to him, those social media posts should not be taken seriously.
Speaking with FightHype, the American simply said, “I’m done” when asked if he would genuinely pursue those fights, or indeed consider coming out of retirement.
But while Crawford seemingly has no desire to step back through the ropes, it appears that Mayweather is deadly serious about fighting Garcia in February.
For that to happen, he may need to overcome several legal obstacles and, even then, the 49-year-old is likely to be a shadow of his former self after ending nearly a decade of professional inactivity.
