Terence Crawford Responds After Ryan Garcia Callout and Insults
Terence Crawford answered Ryan Garcia on X after the WBC welterweight champion used The Ariel Helwani Show to call him a jealous retiree who nobody recognizes. The former five-division champion did not accept the fight. He told Garcia to worry about living opponents and said the younger man is the one carrying the grudge.
Garcia went after Crawford two days after stopping Conor Benn in the second round at T-Mobile Arena. Holding the green belt on camera, he said he wants the retired Omaha southpaw in the ring and framed the chase as unfinished business.
“I just wanna beat his ass, to be real,” Garcia said. “I want that. He knows that I want that. I’m willing to test him, to see where he at.”
He questioned why Crawford left and claimed the sport has already forgotten him. “Will he come back out of retirement? I don’t know. He knows he has to. Nobody knows who the f*ck he is. He has to come back to boxing.”
Garcia said security at a recent event did not know Crawford. “He could see that the security didn’t even know who the f*ck he was. That’s a problem.”
The personal shots followed. “He’s not really retired in his heart. He retired on paper. He a hating ass btch. That’s it. He don’t like me. Come get this smoke then. Fck the not liking sh*t, let’s fight.”
He closed the rant by flipping the jealousy claim. “He’s jealous of me. He knows that. I don’t really like this fcker. Cool. Jealousy motherf**er? I’ll beat the fck out you. I’ll beat the jealous out of you. How about that?”
Crawford posted his reply on the same platform. He first congratulated Garcia after the Benn win with a short note that read, “Congratulations @RyanGarcia mf.” The later posts addressed the Helwani clip directly.
“@RyanGarcia your on funny guy I tell you,” Crawford wrote. “You really a movie character, that’s why I’m entertaining you. You have absolutely nothing and I mean nothing to be jealous of kid. It seem like you’re the jealous one, mad because I retired my way. It’s ok just take note and you’ll be ok.”
A second post pointed Garcia back toward the 147-pound picture. “It’s ok @RyanGarcia ima let you live because you got way too many people to worry about other than me my boy! @Devin Haney @Keyshawn Davis @Shakur Stevenson @Richardson Hitchins @Teófimo López them guys who you need to worry about not me. I know you want that check tho.”
Crawford also addressed the crowd that keeps asking him to return. “I be loving the people that say I’m a nobody and haven’t fought anyone, this and that but every where I go they there,” he wrote. “yall really my biggest fans and really just want to see me come back so yall can witness greatness again that’s all.”
He added that he no longer spends energy trying to convert skeptics. “I remember when I was younger I felt as if I had to prove everyone wrong all the time. I’ve learned along the way that that’s never possible. There’s just people in the world no matter what you do or who you beat that never going to give you credit and I’m fine with that now.”
Crawford retired in December 2025 at 38 after beating Canelo Álvarez for the undisputed super middleweight title, a win that closed a 42-0 career with 31 knockouts and three undisputed reigns. Garcia is 26-2 with 21 knockouts after winning the WBC belt from Mario Barrios in February and making the first defense against Benn on September 12.
Garcia has said he would go to 154 to avenge Canelo’s loss. Crawford’s posts treat that offer as entertainment and a paycheck request, not a reason to leave retirement. Dana White has said there is always a number and the right fight if Crawford ever wants one. Neither man has a contract in front of him.
The names Crawford listed are the ones that actually sit in Garcia’s division. Lopez confronted Garcia in the ring after the Benn stoppage. Haney remains a live rematch after their 2024 junior-welterweight meeting. Stevenson, Davis, and Hitchins are the young titleholders and contenders Garcia still has to clear if the 147-pound picture is the priority.
Nothing in Crawford’s reply books a date. It does close the latest round of the Terence Crawford Ryan Garcia exchange the same way the last ones ended, with the retired champion declining to treat the callout as a mandate and the champion still talking into a microphone. The next move, if there is one, stays with the man who already walked away.