Crawford would have had an array of options available to him if he continued fighting, and the most intriguing one was to potentially make even more history by becoming a six-division champion and four-division undisputed king.

But Crawford, 38, said “no mas” to boxing and has since maintained that he will never fight again.

"At first I was like, alright, go down to 160 and do it again," Crawford told reporter Jai McAllister during a promotional tour in Australia. "But [former unified middleweight champion] Janibek [Alimkhanuly] popped [for a performance enhancing drug].”

Alimkhanuly, a 33-year-old power-punching southpaw from Kazakhstan, was supposed to fight Erislandy Lara on December 6 in a middleweight title unification clash.

He had the IBF and WBO belts, and Lara had the WBA belt. The winner would have had three of the titles, with Carlos Adames carrying the WBC crown and The Ring title being vacant.

During his Lara fight week, Alimkhanuly failed a VADA anti-doping for Meldonium. The bout was canceled and the middleweight belts remained scattered, as Lara outpointed short-notice opponent Johan Gonzalez instead.

“Whoever would've won would've had three of the titles,” said Crawford. “It just was a thought, like, 'You can do it again. Go down to 160 and dare to be great; fight for something that's meaningful.'"

In October, Crawford was seated next to Alimkhanuly’s manager Egis Klimas and was on video calling him out, saying, “I got my eyes on, Janibek.”

Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs), however, couldn’t keep his act clean and has since been stripped of the IBF title. He still holds the WBO belt despite being suspended by the sanctioning body for a year.

Alimkhanuly has also been suspended until May 31 by the Kazakhstan Federation of Professional Boxing and until June 1 by the Association of Boxing Commissions in the United States.

Alimkhanuly was ranked No. 1 by The Ring at 160 pounds but has since been removed from the division’s ratings.

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan