JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES. COVER: TERENCE CRAWFORD WEARS A FLANNEL SUIT BY TODD SNYDER, COTTON SHIRT BY ETON, POCKET SQUARE BY THOM SWEENEY AND LEATHER SHOES BY FERRAGAMO. WATCH: AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK CHRONOGRAPH.
After toppling Canelo Álvarez in the fight of the year, the undefeated boxing champion has earned more than $100 million in the ring. Now 38, and with Warren Buffett in his corner, he is staring down the ultimate opponent—Father Time.
Days before the biggest fight of his career, a championship bout against Canelo Álvarez in Las Vegas in September, unbeaten Terence “Bud” Crawford received a presumptuous addition to his watch collection. WatchGuys, a luxury reseller, gifted him a $15,000 Rolex Submariner, and even though he was 48 hours away from facing one of the toughest opponents in boxing history, the inscription on the back of the timepiece boldly predicted his new record: 42-0.
“They believed in me that much that they knew I’m going to win,” says Crawford, 38, reflecting on the victory by unanimous decision from inside B&B Sports Academy, his boxing gym in Omaha, Nebraska. “I had it in my mind that [Álvarez] wasn’t beating me. There was nothing he could do to win that night.”
Omaha, Omaha: “I’ve seen an awful lot of fight champions that die busted,” Warren Buffett says of Crawford. “I don’t think Bud is going to end up that way at all. He’s got his head screwed on.”
Jamel Toppin for Forbes
The soft-spoken Crawford has preferred to let his fists do the talking over the course of his 17-year professional career, which includes 31 knockouts, 18 world championships across five divisions and three undisputed titles. But by jumping up two weight classes to defeat the heavily favored Álvarez, he cemented his place in the boxing pantheon alongside other prizefighting icons of his era, including Manny Pacquiao and Oleksandr Usyk.
Such an audacious gamble, putting his undefeated record on the line to fight the much larger Álvarez, came with an even bigger financial reward: the largest payday of his career. Forbes estimates Crawford earned $50 million that night, pushing his lifetime boxing earnings north of $100 million.
Don’t expect him to spend it all in one place. Crawford has invested in the stock market, and he has amassed a real estate portfolio worth more than $20 million because, as he says, “God ain’t making more land.” He even insists that his watch collection, which Forbes values between $500,000 and $1 million and features such blue-chip pieces as a Patek Philippe Travel Time Aquanaut, an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph and several Rolexes, is an asset bound to grow in value rather than a flashy indulgence.
“Making the money I’m making in the ring, I don’t need to rush anything,” he says. “Some people want to rush and take risk, and I’m not a big risk taker when I can’t control it.”
With agency over his finances, he’ll be damned if he lets a dollar go to waste. In his merchandise business, for example, Crawford once refused to spend an additional 99 cents to add a custom neck tag to a new line of T-shirts that cost $12 to make and sell for $40. And even though he generously picked up a $2,000 dinner tab for a group of 18 friends a couple months ago, he made sure to score a 15%-off coupon beforehand.
“He’s frugal,” says Crawford’s lifelong friend Steven Nelson, the head of operations at his gym. “He believes in spending money that makes sense.”
That’s one thing Crawford has in common with the wealthiest resident of his native Omaha, Warren Buffett. The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway is also famously financially prudent, living in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31,500, driving modest cars, eating at McDonald’s and using a flip phone despite his roughly $150 billion fortune.
Buffett has become a “huge admirer” of Crawford over the years and has attended several of his fights. The 95-year-old Oracle of Omaha even skirted his 10 p.m. bedtime by a few hours in September to watch the Álvarez match on Netflix. In addition to appreciating Crawford’s prowess in the ring, Buffett is impressed by his fellow Nebraskan’s measured approach to investing.
Knockout Watches: Crawford’s collection includes (clockwise from top left) a Rolex Deepsea, Hublot Big Bang Meca-10, Rolex Submariner (inscribed with 42-0), Patek Philippe Aquanaut Travel Time, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph, Rolex Sky-Dweller and a Ulysse Nardin Blast Free Wheel Marquetry.
Jamel Toppin for Forbes
“I’ve seen an awful lot of fight champions that die busted, and the people around them got rich,” Buffett says. “I don’t think Bud is going to end up that way at all. He’s got his head screwed on.”
The odds certainly weren’t in Crawford’s favor growing up in North Omaha, an area plagued by crime and poverty. In 2008, the then-20-year-old was hit by a bullet in the back of his head while sitting in his car after a dice game. (It missed his brain by inches.) Watching his family struggle financially, a young Crawford picked up a habit of stashing every dollar away. Eventually, he realized that “money in the shoebox ain’t really saving money.”
Crawford credits his fourth-grade teacher, Jamie Nolette, for playing a key role in opening his eyes to the bigger financial picture and introducing him to an accountant. He also used to spar with former world champion Timothy Bradley, who told him to invest and to form an LLC. That advice would come in handy when Crawford started fighting for purses north of $1 million in 2015.
The money only got better over the next decade, especially after he acrimoniously split from his former promoter, Bob Arum’s Top Rank Boxing, in 2021. While the biggest fights in the sport eluded Crawford for most of his career, including several failed attempts to face the legendary Pacquiao, he had his moment two years later, demolishing Errol Spence Jr. in nine rounds, reportedly earning $25 million for the fight.
Crawford’s longtime coach, Bernie Davis, said it would take $100 million to get him back in the ring.
“In matchup after matchup, Crawford has consistently defied the expectations of a lot of people who, early on, did not think he had superstar potential,” says sportscaster Jim Lampley, who spent 30 years as the voice of HBO Championship Boxing. “He just understood it was a matter of being patient enough, following his own principles, fighting the way he can fight and everything would turn out all right. And it did.”
For now, Crawford isn’t thinking about a rematch with Álvarez, and he isn’t ready to decide what’s next for his boxing career, either. (In December, the WBC stripped him of his super middleweight title, claiming he failed to pay sanctioning fees for the September fight.) Retiring undefeated, akin to greats like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Rocky Marciano, would be a “blessing,” he says. And he certainly doesn’t have to rush back into the ring for income. Forbes estimates that Crawford earns at least $2 million annually from brand partnerships, including Crown Casino, Riyadh Season and Everlast, as well as other business endeavors. His longtime coach, Bernie Davis, recently said it would take $100 million to get Crawford back in the ring.
When he does finally hang up his gloves, Crawford wants to dive deeper on his real estate interests. He currently has a mix of nearly 80 properties, residential and commercial, spread across Omaha, Kansas City and Colorado Springs, all paid for in cash. Eventually, he wants to add Las Vegas to that group. His portfolio operates at a loss right now, which he expects to change in a few years, but he’s not willing to chase a quick windfall to make that happen.
“I don’t want to take chances,” Crawford says. “I take too many chances in the ring.”
