By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) won’t be fighting Errol Spence Jr. (24-0, 21 KOs) anytime soon, according to Premier Boxing Champions vice president Tim Smith. He says they’re going to be focusing on their business of matching Spence against their fighters with PBC, and Crawford, 31, isn’t in the picture right now.
Spence, 28, doesn’t need to fight Crawford right now due to how deep the Premier Boxing Champion stable is at 147. The following PBC fighters are available for Spence to fight right now:
– Manny Pacquiao
– Adrien Broner
– Shawn Porter
– Mikey Garcia
– Danny Garcia
With some of those fighters, Spence can potentially fight rematches with them if the fights wind up as close. Mikey and Broner figure to be wipe-out wins for Spence right now, but Danny G, Porter and Pacquiao could be competitive fights for Spence. Once Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman returns from his hand injury, he’ll be an option for Spence as well.
“The same guys that are available to Manny Pacquiao are available to Errol Spence,” Al Haymon Vice President Tim Smith said to ThaBoxingvoice. “He’s got a full plate. We want any fight that makes sense for Errol Spence at this time. We’re concentrating on out business. Our business is making fights with Premier Boxing Champions fighters. This deal says we have PBC on Fox. That’s what we’re focusing on. Al [Haymon] is a deal maker, because he doesn’t just sit around and talk about it and talk down somebody. He just gets deals done. When the time is right to get the deal done, it’ll get done,” Smith said.
It’s probably a good thing that Crawford isn’t fighting Spence, because there’s a good chance that he would smash him like he’s expected to destroy Mikey Garcia when/if he faces him in February 2019. Crawford moved up in weight from 140 to 147 this year, but he’s not a big welterweight. Crawford is still a light welterweight in size, and he’s likely going to be too small for Spence. Crawford being on the other side of the fence in terms of promotions may save himself from a nasty defeat at the hands of Spence. There’s nothing wrong with Crawford saving himself from a loss to Spence by staying with Top Rank.
Crawford had the chance to get the big fights against the likes of the other PBC fighters like Spence, but he chose to sign an extension with Top Rank, which will keep him under contract for what could be the end of his prime. It was a decision Crawford made, and now he just has to live with it. In case that Crawford is unable to ever face any of the Premier Boxing Champions fighters, he’ll be fighting the likes of Egidijus Kavaliauskas, Carlos Adames, Jose Benavidez Jr. [again], Jeff Horn and possibly Maurice Hooker. Those are all fights that are pretty much a given due to those guys being with Top Rank. Any contender not affiliated with PBC will be an option for Crawford, but not necessarily a sure thing to fight him. Crawford has a difficult style of fighting, and it’s quite possible that the other promoters will prefer having their fighters take their chances against WBA ‘regular’ champion Manny Pacquiao, WBA Super World champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman and WBC champion Shawn Porter.
Crawford was given big money in signing an extension with Top Rank, so it’s understandable why he extended his contract. However, he might have gotten a better deal if he let his contract expire and then tested the market. Who knows what kind of money DAZN would have given Crawford at the end of his contract with Top Rank. He might have gotten huge money to sign with DAZN.
Crawford says he wants to unify the 147 lb division in winning all four titles in the weight class, but that’s now going to be pretty much impossible unless PBC chooses to let him fight against their champions. I can’t see that happening. For that reason, Crawford has put himself in the same position that Tim Bradley was in when he re-signed with Top Rank a few years ago. Had Bradley let his contract expire, he would have potentially had a chance to fight the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shawn Porter, Errol Spence Jr., Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman. Instead, Bradley ended his career fighting Pacquiao and Jessie Vargas in his last two fights.
Manny Pacquiao, a former Top Rank fighter, has left the promotional company and is now being managed by PBC. Pacquiao has the chance of facing seven good fighters in the above mentioned Broner, Spence, Thurman, Porter, Danny Garcia and Mikey Garcia. If Mayweather comes out of retirement, than that would be yet another good fighter for Pacquiao to fight.
“When you have a legacy type of fighter like Manny Pacquiao, he wants his career to go out a certain way,” said Tim Smith. “You have to realize Manny Pacquiao is a Premier Boxing Champions fighter. He doesn’t want to be looked at like a gate keeper. He doesn’t want to be somebody where you’re setting him up to pass the torch to this guy. He still wants to compete at a high level, and we have the inventory of guys in his weight class 147 pounds. He can compete with these guys at the highest level. In his last fight, he looked like Manny of old. He showed speed, and he showed power. PBC can match him up with a wealth of guys to bring out the best in him, and he’s going to bring out the best in them at 147. Everybody within that range [Adrien Broner, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shawn Porter, Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter and Mikey Garcia] is available [to Pacquiao]. Anybody he wants to fight is available to him. He’s entered a partnership with Al [Haymon]. He’s under the PBC umbrella, and he has a partnership with Al, and they’ll sit down and decide what’s best for him, what’s best for Manny Pacquiao, and what’s best for the rest of his career moving forward. He can place himself in the position to get what he wants to get as he winds up his career,” Smith said.