The WBC stripped Terence Crawford of his super middleweight title on Wednesday, claiming the undefeated American star has failed to pay mandatory fees to the sanctioning body.
Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) won the undisputed super middleweight championship with a dominant decision win against Canelo Alvarez in September.
The WBC says it gave Crawford a discount from 3% to 0.6% on sanctioning fees on his reported $50 million purse from fighting Canelo, claiming that Crawford has balked at paying the fee for that fight.
“The WBC sent multiple communications to Champion Crawford, his manager, and his legal counsel,” the sanctioning body said in a statement. “Very unfortunately, the WBC did not receive an acknowledgment of receipt nor any response to any of those communications. The WBC had no choice but to act.”
Crawford responded to the WBC’s claims in an expletive-ladened video on Wednesday.
“I ain’t paying yo ass s—,” Crawford said defiantly, calling out WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman by name. “What makes you better than any of the other sanctioning bodies?
“What makes you better than the WBO, the IBF, or the WBA,” Crawford continued. “Everybody accepted what I was giving them but you. You, the WBC, think that you’re better than everybody … you want me to pay you more than the other sanctioning bodies because you feel like you’re better than them.”
Crawford has held world championships in five divisions and been undisputed in three classes, while building his unblemished record.
A bout between British contender Hamzah Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KOs) and fellow contender Christian Mbilli has been ordered for the vacant title.
Sheeraz has the opportunity to become Britain’s next world champion but must go through Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs), a Cameroon-born and Canada-based contender, who is coming off an all-out brawl against Lester Martinez in September, ended in a split draw.
Sheeraz impressively stopped Edgar Berlanga earlier this year, having moved to the super middleweight division.
Previously, Sheeraz had a shot at the WBC middleweight title but fought to a draw against Carlos Adames.
Sheeraz and Mbilli are the No. 4 and No. 5 ranked super middleweights, respectively, in ESPN’s divisional rankings.