Why Was Terence Crawford Stripped of WBC Title 81 Days After Win vs. Canelo Alvarez?

Just 81 days after his historic win over Canelo Álvarez, Terence "Bud" Crawford is no longer considered the undisputed super middleweight boxing champion of the world.

According to Darshan Desai of Yahoo Sports' Uncrowned, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman announced Wednesday at the WBC annual convention in Bangkok, Thailand, that Crawford has been stripped of the WBC super middleweight title due to his failure to pay sanctioning fees for his past two fights against Álvarez and Israil Madrimov.

On Sept. 13, Crawford moved up in weight to beat Álvarez by unanimous decision for the WBC, WBO, WBA (Super), IBF and The Ring super middleweight titles, making him undisputed champion.

However, that distinction was short-lived, as the WBC super middleweight title is now considered vacant.

In a statement regarding the decision to strip Crawford of the WBC title, Sulaiman said Crawford "allegedly earned $50 million" for his fight with Canelo, and while a fighter would normally have to pay 3 percent of that purse as a bout fee, the WBC modified the ask to 0.6 percent, which equates to $300,000.

Sulaiman added that the WBC "sent multiple communications to champion Crawford, his manager, and his legal counsel," only for none of them to provide "acknowledgement of receipt, nor any response."

Crawford entered the fight against Canelo as an underdog due to the belief that he might struggle at 168 pounds, but he outclassed Álvarez in a dominant performance, improving his career record to 42-0.

With that win, Crawford became a champion across five different weight classes, and he became an undisputed champion for the third time in his career.

The 38-year-old veteran is No. 1 in The Ring's pound-for-pound rankings, making him the recognized best overall boxer in the world.

Per Desai, the WBC already has a fight set up to determine a new WBC super middleweight champion in the near future.

Christian M'billi, who is the interim WBC super middleweight champ, will take on Hamzah Sheeraz. Neither M'billi nor Sheeraz have ever lost a fight, as M'billi is 29-0-1 and Sheeraz is 22-0-1.

M'billi's only blemish was a split draw against Lester Martínez in September, and it has already been ordered that the winner of M'billi vs. Sheeraz will have a mandatory title defense against the 19-0-1 Martínez in the future.