Photo by: Naoki Fukuda

Danny Garcia and Terence Crawford engaged in an entertaining war-of-words on social media on Tuesday that was unusual because it involved two top fighters who don’t necessarily need each other for a big fight.

Crawford (29-0, 20 knockouts) got things rolling when he responded to earlier criticism by Danny’s father, Angel Garcia that he’s not a legitimate champion. “Yo dad said I’m a made up champion for beating the guy ya’ll was scared to fight,” Crawford tweeted.

He was referencing a step-aside agreement that Garcia once made to put off fighting Viktor Postol when he was his mandatory. Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) vacated the title and rose to welterweight where he won a title instead of facing the Ice Man. Crawford dominated Postol in a decision victory on July 23 in a junior welterweight unification match.

“You doing what I did 3 years ago,” Garcia responded. “I ain’t no little Gamboa or stiff Postol. I end careers, check my track record.” Those were fighting words to Crawford, who raised the ante by asking Garcia to sign on the dotted line to face him.

“That same stiff guy y’all paid so you didn’t have to fight him, that guy?” Crawford returned. “Look, I’m not them old guy you been fighting you know that. So tell you what, tell yo dad to make the fight and I’ll show him how much of a paper champ I am at yo weight and for yo belt. How you run a weight class but pay someone step aside money not to fight you but you ran through the weight class. How that go?”

Garcia suggested that Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum contact his advisor Al Haymon to get the ball rolling on a match-up that few expect to actually happen. “Your fight did 50k buys,” Garcia responded, referencing the round-about numbers that Crawford and Postol are said to have generated on HBO PPV. “If you wanna do real numbers and get defeated – Tell Bob to call Al.”

But Crawford may have landed the knockout blow when he asked of Garcia, “Who better, Gamboa or Rod Salka?” Garcia didn’t have an immediate response.