Terence Crawford hears everything but he doesn’t always acknowledge it.

Since the beginning, even some of his greatest supporters have had something negative to say about him. The biggest ammunition that’s been used against him is his level of opposition. Although he did go on to become an undisputed champion at both 140 and 147 pounds, his path to those titles was viewed as incredibly weak.

During his junior welterweight run, Crawford fully unified the division thanks to wins over Viktor Postol, Thomas Dulorme, and Julius Indongo. In the case of Indongo, Crawford defended him from endless criticism but the transient former champ did himself no favors following his defeat to Crawford.

After coming up woefully short via third-round stoppage, Indongo went on a long losing streak, one that’s still ongoing. In total, Indongo has lost 10 of his last 12 fights.

Crawford’s welterweight run has been equally as criticized.

A win over Jeff Horn may have netted him the WBO 147-pound title but respect didn’t follow. Even after beating Errol Spence Jr. for the remaining belts, many considered him a shot fighter.

Most recently, the critics have been at it again following Crawford’s unanimous decision win over Israil Madrimov for his WBA junior middleweight title.

After adding another belt to his trophy case, Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) pontificated his desire to face any and every champion in his new weight class. That would be fun but it would also invite a ton of head-shaking critics again. You see, the 154-pound division has terrific fighters but none are household names. So instead of dealing with more outside noise, Crawford has decided to move up to the super middleweight division to fight Canelo Alvarez.

Winning is a stretch but it isn’t impossible. If Crawford were able to get a marquee win over Alvarez on his resume, he believes he’ll be a made man.

“What would they be able to say with me going up two weight classes?” Questioned Crawford during an interview with Cigar Talk. “If Canelo becomes undisputed again and I beat Canelo, what can they say? They’ll say something but what can they really say?”