Photo by: Lina Baker (instantboxing.com)

A little more than a month away from the biggest fight of his career, Terence Crawford is already thinking of an exit strategy.

The low-key WBO junior welterweight titleholder is having lunch at a Manhattan hotel before Saturday’s card at Madison Square Garden and is discussing his favorite athletes, Kobe Bryant in basketball and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in boxing. Both have recently retired form their respective sports, both rich enough to never work again.

Though Crawford is in the midst of preparations for a junior welterweight unification match with WBC titleholder Viktor Postol on July 23 in Las Vegas on HBO PPV, the 28-year-old Nebraskan can’t help but look ahead.

Crawford is talking about what it was like to watch Muhammad Ali’s funeral procession on television. He is asked if he’s given any thought to when he would like to leave the sport. He has. After watching too many fighters risk their health for a paycheck, Crawford hopes to retire young, at age 32.

“I thought about it, me personally, if everything can go well, like 32,” he tells RingTV.com over a bowl of lobster bisque. “Of course, I don’t want to be in a predicament where I need boxing. I never want to leave the sport and feel like I have to come back because of financial problems. I don’t want boxing to retire me. I want to retire boxing.”

Normally guarded and circumspect, Crawford (28-0, 20 knockouts) is relaxing and talking freely as a public relations flack looks on. Crawford waxes poetic over the greatness of Kobe Bryant and what he shares in common with the ex-Laker. “Kobe, if he could take every shot in the game, he would do it,” Crawford says. “If he could do it by himself he would do it. And that’s what I admire about him the most because he hates to lose, and so do I.”

He then moves on to Mayweather, admitting he used to watch YouTube videos of Mayweather working out, training. The conversation is light — there is no mention of Crawford’s arrest in April over allegations he repeatedly pushed an auto shop owner in his hometown of Omaha and caused $5,000 worth of damages to a hydraulic lift.

“I always looked up to that man,” he says of Mayweather. “It’s like he’s on another level and you want to know what he did to get (there) and can you do the same? So you want to watch him to see how he trains, what he eats, everything.”

The conversation progresses to Postol (28-0, 12 KOs), his opponent on July 23. Postol is 32, the same age when Crawford would like to retire. “He’s tall, he’s long, he likes to clinch a lot,” Crawford says. “I don’t know until I fight him. He may try with (some) surprises and come to us and throw a lot of punches. You never know what you might get.”

Soon, Crawford is gabbing of another boxer he admires, Gennady Golovkin. “Oh that’s a tremendous fighter,” Crawford says. “GGG is one of the most feared fighters at his weight class. GGG is another fighter like Floyd in a sense. You look at GGG and you say, ‘Okay, he cleared out his weight class, but why not go up?’ GGG avoided a couple fighters but at the same time why should he have to go up if he’s not ready?”

Crawford narrows his eyes and his expression changes from calm to solemn. He’s now onto a topic that is squarely in his strike zone and which he feels passionately about: Bowing to public pressure to appease the fans when it comes to fighting a certain way, moving up in weight and when it’s time to retire.

“A lot of fans and a lot of people will try to push you to lose, to run into a brick wall because they don’t want to see you make it out the game like Floyd Mayweather, like Rocky Marciano,” he says. “They want to see you in matches where you’re getting really hurt and you’re really bruised and after boxing — they’re not going to be the ones that pick you up after you fall or walk you to the car. They’re just going to live their life healthy as they can be and talk about how great of a fight that was. I don’t think it’s right to just want to see someone get their head beat in. If I’m not that type of fighter, don’t push me to be that type of fighter.”

He references Timothy Bradley’s brawl with Ruslan Provodnikov in 2013 as a life-altering experience for both men. While Bradley won a close decision, Crawford was critical of the manner in which Bradley fought, citing his life after boxing.

“The fans can drive a person into fighting a certain fight that he is not accustomed to for his style, like Timothy Bradley against Provodnikov,” he says. “(Bradley) fought the fight that the fans wanted to see. He didn’t fight the fight that he should have fought to better solidify his career. (Provodnikov) took a lot out of Tim in that fight. And Tim took a lot out of Provodnikov in that fight.”

Which is why Crawford wants to get out of the sport before the sport takes too much out of him.

Mitch Abramson is a former reporter for the New York Daily News and can be reached on Twitter at: @Mabramson13.