With a 5-minute, 29-second video, Terence “Bud” Crawford announced his retirement from in-ring competition Tuesday at 38.

Crawford hangs up the gloves after his seminal victory over Canelo Alvarez in September. If Crawford is indeed retired from boxing for good — it’s a rite of passage in fight sports to come back again and again — It’s a storybook ending.

When Crawford was promoted by Top Rank, promoter Bob Arum once famously quipped he could buy a Beverly Hills mansion with all the money he lost trying to build "Bud" into a star.

Crawford can be surly; downright defiant. The massive chip on his shoulder? Omnipresent. But it fueled him to heights few — certainly not Arum — could have forecast.

A stadium showdown with the sport’s unquestioned top star before 70,000-plus, viewed by more than 40 million on Netflix. And a performance to match the moment, a convincing decision win over Alvarez to win the Ring Magazine championship in a third weight class.

Not just pound-for-pound stuff. The sort of accomplishment that sealed Crawford as an all-time great. And in a sport that retires fighters on its own terms, it’s refreshing to see someone walk away — on top of boxing — from 10s of millions of more dollars.

A rematch with Canelo would be another megafight, even if it wouldn’t be as big as the first. Alvarez has called for such a meeting in recent weeks. Crawford clearly isn’t interested (at least for now). And really, who else is there for him to get excited for around his weight?

Which means we can turn our attention to Crawford’s place in history. And it’s always difficult to truly — and fairly —compare boxers from vastly different eras. This is a sport that’s been around for 150 years in gloved form, not MMA where it’s far easier to survey the hierarchy.

The great Henry Armstrong retired in 1945 with 180 bouts on his record. When Jack Johnson lost the heavyweight championship in 1915, Jess Willard scored the upset with a KO in Round 26 of a scheduled 45.

The switch-hitting Crawford fights in an era where title fights are contested over 12 rounds. And he steps away with a sterling 42-0 record, having fought only once a year over the final six of his career. The last time he competed twice in a year? 2019. All this to say that it’s simply an exercise in futility to confidently state where he ranks in the annals of history.

What we can firmly say is that Crawford is one of the best fighters of our lifetime, and arguably the greatest fighter of his era. But even that second part is tough to nail down as the 2025 calendar nears its conclusion.

After all, two other all-time greats are still writing their stories. Naoya Inoue fights on Dec. 27 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, against Alan Picasso on DAZN. If Inoue wins, as expected, he’ll become the first fighter since Larry Holmes to make four defenses of the Ring Magazine championship in a calendar year.

The Monster is on a collision course with Junto Nakatani (who fights Sebastian Hernandez in next week’s co-headliner) for a May fight at Tokyo Dome, another fight that could greatly enhance Inoue’s legacy.

Oleksandr Usyk, meanwhile, is widely regarded as one of the best cruiserweights ever (alongside Evander Holyfield) and is on his way to cementing himself as a top-10 heavyweight all-time. Recently, Usyk said he plans to keep fighting for several more years.

With a pair of wins over future Hall of Famers in Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, Usyk still has time to add to his legacy. And all along, it’s been a three-headed monster in the pound-for-pound conversation: Crawford, Inoue and Usyk. The order would often change based on who fought most recently.

And the plaudits coming Crawford’s way — accolades he earned — could easily lend itself to recency bias. With good reason too considering the way he picked apart Canelo over the stretch, a man he moved up two weight classes to fight.

What Crawford is missing (perhaps no fault of his own) are more statement victories on his resume. Errol Spence is there, too, another high-profile fight where Crawford left no doubt.

Had Crawford cleaned out 154 pounds with wins over Sebastian Fundora, Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz, his case as the greatest of his era would be greatly enhanced.

The same can be said about his run at 147 pounds, though he was clearly frozen out by the politics of boxing and because Al Haymon controlled the top fighters in the division (Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia).

Once Crawford picked apart Spence, it all made sense why he wasn’t able to entice fights with the other PBC fighters sooner.

What we know for sure: Crawford’s departure leaves boxing without another star, a talent we all might have underrated before he faced Canelo.

What we don’t know just yet, no matter how hard we try: Just where he ranks in the echoes of eternity?