Ryan Garcia Calls Out Retired Terence Crawford After Benn Win
Ryan Garcia used his first title defense as a platform to go after Terence Crawford, saying he wants the retired five-division champion in the ring and accusing him of ducking a real test. The WBC welterweight champion spoke on The Ariel Helwani Show two days after stopping Conor Benn in two rounds at T-Mobile Arena.
“I just wanna beat his ass, to be real,” Garcia said. “I want that. He knows that I want that.”
Garcia framed the chase as more than noise. He said he is willing to move and test Crawford after the Omaha southpaw walked away last winter with an unbeaten record and nothing left, on paper, to chase.
“I’m willing to test him, to see where he at,” Garcia said. “Will he come back out of retirement? I don’t know. He knows he has to.”
The 28-year-old then turned the callout into an attack on Crawford’s public profile. Garcia claimed security at a recent event did not recognize the former pound-for-pound king and treated that as proof Crawford still needs boxing more than boxing needs him.
“Nobody knows who the fck he is,” Garcia said. “He has to come back to boxing. He knows that, though. He could see that the security didn’t even know who the fck he was. That’s a problem.”
Crawford retired in December 2025 at 38 after beating Canelo Álvarez for the undisputed super middleweight title in September of that year. He left the sport 42-0 with 31 knockouts and as the only man in the four-belt era to become undisputed in three divisions.
Garcia said that farewell was paperwork, not conviction. “He’s not really retired in his heart,” he said. “He retired on paper.”
The personal edge in the interview was sharper than the boxing argument. Garcia said Crawford picked Benn to beat him, does not like him, and is motivated by jealousy rather than a finished résumé.
“He a hating ass btch,” Garcia said. “That’s it. He don’t like me. That’s what it is. Come get this smoke then. Fck the not liking sh*t, let’s fight.”
He kept going. “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?”
The same conversation included a cleaner sporting hook. Garcia told Helwani he wants the fight in part to avenge Canelo’s loss, which puts a welterweight titleholder offering himself as the comeback opponent for a man who last fought at 168.
Garcia had already called for welterweight unifications after the Benn stoppage, naming Teófimo López and Devin Haney in the ring. Those remain the fights that fit his division and his remaining Golden Boy date. A Crawford bout would require the retired champion to return and both sides to settle a catchweight or a move to 154.
Crawford was at ringside Saturday and had publicly backed Benn. After the second-round TKO he congratulated Garcia and later said he does not pay the champion much attention, a line that tracks with earlier comments that Garcia talks before every fight.
Dana White has kept the door cracked. The Zuffa Boxing chief said after the card that there is always a number for Crawford, but that the right fight matters more than money because Crawford is enjoying time with his family. White listed a return as something he would like to pull off. He did not name Garcia as that fight.
Garcia’s record now sits at 26-2 with 21 knockouts. He won the WBC belt from Mario Barrios in February and needed 4:25 to finish Benn in his first defense, dropping the Briton with a right hand and forcing the stoppage on the ropes.
That win repaired some of the damage from a career that has included a PED suspension, a no-contest with Haney, and long stretches when the spotlight outran the résumé. It does not, on its own, put him level with a five-division champion who closed his career against Canelo.
Crawford has heard versions of this pitch before. Garcia has needled him for months about never facing a young, fast, hungry opponent and has said he would go to 154, not 160, if the fight were made. None of that has produced a contract.
The next move is still Crawford’s. He can stay retired, take a fight that interests him, or ignore another viral clip. Garcia made his ask in the only language he uses when he wants a name: he wants the fight, he thinks Crawford is jealous, and he is waiting to see whether the retirement holds.