By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum says he’s received some reliable inside information that Errol Spence Jr. won’t be back inside the ring in the “fforeseeable future,” @IFLTV. Spence was involved in a horrific car crash on October 10 in Dallas, Texas.
Arum says IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence (26-0, 20 KOs) won’t be fighting Crawford in 2020 or 2021, because he has doubts that he’ll be able to return to the ring soon.
Errol crashed his Ferrari 488 Spider while “traveling at a high rate of speed.’ His Ferrari flipped several times, and he was thrown from the vehicle. Surprisingly, Spence wasn’t wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.
No broken bones is what Spence said on his social media site after being released from an ICU. He’s said to have suffered facial lacerations, although some boxing fans believe Spence suffered additional injuries that weren’t mentioned.
Arum has grave doubts Spence will return to the ring soon
“I don’t think it’ll happen next year, and I don’t think it’ll happen the year after,” said Arum to IFL TV about the Spence vs. Crawford fight. “It’s not because the promoters don’t want it to happen, because I have grave doubts whether Errol Spence will be back in the ring in the foreseeable future, unfortunately as that may be. I have received some inside intelligence that allows me to say that.
“So let’s pass on Errol Spence, until we can see him face to face, until he appears in public, and until we can establish he’s ready to go back into the ring. It’s unfortunate, but let’s not talk about it. He’s a lovely young man. That was a horrible accident he had. Let’s just leave it at that. It is good information. It is unfortunately very good information,” said Arum.
If Spence is as injured as Arum is hinting at, then it could take a very long time before he returns to action. The first casualties will be Spence’s IBF and WBC 147-lb titles. Those will likely be gone soon. What Arum has got to be upset about is Crawford not getting a chance to fight Spence in 2020 or 2021. Spence was one of the few elite level fighters that was interested in facing Crawford.
That’s a match that could have taken place in 2020, and there were a lot of fans eager to see it. If Spence does come back in 2022, Crawford will be 35 by then, and likely beginning to show his age. Crawford said this week that he won’t be fighting when he’s 36. So if Spence doesn’t fight Crawford by 2022, he may miss his chance.
Pacquiao turned down Crawford fight – Arum
“I offered it to Manny Pacquiao on a couple of occasions, and they didn’t want to fight Terence Crawford,” said Arum. “”I can’t blame him. Pacquiao was a great warrior, and he had fabulous fights with Juan Manuel Marquez and Tim Bradley, but at this stage in his career or the later stages with Top Rank, I don’t think he would have been particularly competitive with Terence Crawford. And everytime I raised the issue of them fighting with Crawford, they told me, ‘no,'” said Arum.
You can’t blame Pacquiao for not wanting to fight the southpaw Crawford, because it’s a bad style match-up for him. Crawford has all the negative things going for him when it comes to Pacquiao. These are the bad things Crawford has going against him:
- Moves a lot
- Switch-hitter
- Counter puncher
- Taunts opponents at times
- Not a pay-per-view attraction
- Lacks charisma
Prograis, Ramirez and Taylor options for Crawford
“They have one fighter at PBC that would make a fascinating fight with Terence, and that’s Shawn Porter,” said Arum. “I think Porter is a terrific fighter. He lost closely to Errol Spence. It could have gone either way. So certainly Porter. So then there’s nothing unless we look at the fabulous light welterweights, like Jose Ramirez. He wants to go up to 147, and he would be amenable to fight Crawford.
“Then there’s Regis Prograis, who is a terrific junior welterweight, who wants to fight welterweight now. He’s had conversations with us. Then there’s a fighter we haven’t had a conversation with Josh Taylor, who is a terrific fighter. I feel he would be interested in going up to welterweight to test Crawford. I think those are the big super fights for Terence. He’s [Prograis] big for 140 pounds, and he could reach 147 easily,” said Arum.
Arum has a good shot of matching Crawford against Jose Ramirez, because he promotes him. But as far as Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor, I have doubts either of them will agree to fight Crawford. Prograis is coming off of a loss to Taylor, and he’s not going to want to take a risky fight with Crawford soon. Taylor might take the fight with Crawford if Arum makes him a big offer.