Terence Crawford shows off wrestling skills with Dana White’s cruiserweight champion

Originally posted on Bloody Elbow | By Donagh Corby | Last updated May 22, 2026 7:56 PM ET

Terence Crawford has shown himself to be an impressive wrestler in a brief clip of his grappling with Jai Opetaia.

After retiring from boxing last year, Crawford has been keeping a relatively low profile and enjoying his life away from the sport. He most recently jumped up to super-middleweight to defeat Canelo Alvarez, becoming a rare two-weight undisputed champion back in September.

He is now in Egypt, getting involved in the fight week for Oleksandr Usyk’s heavyweight super-fight with kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven. And he shared a new video to social media in which he was able to pick up the cruiserweight Opetaia with ease.

Terence Crawford shows his wrestling base in new social media video

What many fans aren’t aware of is that Terence Crawford has a strong wrestling pedigree from his younger days. He competed in amateur wrestling during his high school years in the state of Nebraska, which he claims helped in his later boxing career.

Crawford has in the past joked about the possibility of taking a fight in MMA, although he is believed to be more concerned about the kicks as opposed to the grappling.

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Today, he shared a video in which he visited the pyramids in Giza with cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia. There, with the famed backdrop on full display, he grappled with the much bigger man, ultimately picking him up off his feet before the pair started laughing.

Opetaia, who fights at 200lb and is signed to Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing, is five inches taller than 5’9″ Crawford who had to bulk up considerably to even tip the scales at 167.5lb for his last outing. And he joked that the pound-for-pound great “cheated,” and that he “wasn’t ready”.

This article first appeared on Bloody Elbow and was syndicated with permission.

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