It’s all a game of bluff with Keith Thurman, according to Terence Crawford.

Crawford, the WBO welterweight titlist from Omaha, Nebraska, had some harsh words for his 147-pound confrère in a recent interview with Brian Custer on The Last Stand Podcast.

Thurman, a former titlist from Clearwater, Florida, told Custer and other outlets earlier this year that he was bullish on fighting Crawford. When Custer related this information to Crawford in a recording of their interview uploaded onto YouTube on Monday, the Nebraskan responded by saying that Thurman was simply blustering. Crawford brought up a slew of instances where Thurman downplayed Crawford’s credentials at 147, which, to Crawford, is proof that Thurman’s latest pronouncements should be taken with a grain of salt.  

“Listen, listen man,” Crawford said. “Everybody know Keith Thurman is just talking. You know you gotta understand, Keith Thurman was the same guy that said I’m not a real welterweight. Keith Thurman is the same guy that said I haven’t really proven myself at welterweight. Keith Thurman is the same guy that expressed himself, you know, as not being interested in fighting Terence Crawford, so now all of a sudden out of the blue, he’s ‘feening’ to fight Terence Crawford? Ok.”

Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) indicated earlier this year that he was all for stepping in to fight either WBA, IBF, WBC champion Errol Spence Jr. or Crawford if the two failed to reach a deal to fight for the undisputed welterweight championship of the world. That became a reality last month after Crawford announced he would be fighting David Avanesyan instead on Dec. 10 in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha. As for Spence, it is widely believed he will take on Thurman next year. Both Spence and Thurman are longtime clients of Al Haymon, the founder of Premier Boxing Champions.

Further to his point, Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) said he believes Thurman had been “ducking” Spence for years and that his recent callouts are nothing more than attempts to stay “relevant.”

“See, the thing is, when you’re not relevant, you know what I mean, [you] take shots at the guys that are relevant,” Crawford continued. “That’s what Keith Thurman is doing right now. He’s feening to fight me, he’s feening to fight Errol Spence, when he clearly ducked Errol Spence for how many years? When he clearly didn’t want to get in the ring with Errol Spence, when he clearly tried to shade Terence Crawford off at fighting at the welterweight division.

“Now all of sudden you out there naked in the streets and you wanna fight everybody. C’mon, man, we don’t believe you, Keith. We don’t believe you.”