By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford has spent the last couple of weeks in what some feel is a move to shame and embarrass Errol Spence Jr. enough to where he’ll finally face him inside the ring. From the looks of it, Crawford is using the LAZY approach to getting Spence and the other PBC fighters to give him a fight.
Instead of taking on the BEST to earn fights against Spence, Manny Pacquiao and the PBC fighters, Crawford is beating lesser fighters, and then complaining on social media and trash talking. He’s using a weak shortcut to try and get the top guys to face him. Why isn’t Crawford fighting guys that could potentially beat him like the Charlo brothers, Josh Taylor, Regis Prograis or Jarrett Hurd?
If that’s what Crawford is doing, the whole move could backfire with him staying where he’s at, fighting whoever his Top Rank promoters can dig up for him. The way to force the PBC fighters like Spence to face Crawford would be for Top Rank to start matching him against quality guys, which hasn’t been happening.
Moving up to 154 would be a way for Crawford to get fights
The old fashioned way for fighters to get the top guys to face them is to EARN their way by taking on the best or taking risks by moving up or down in weight. Sadly, Crawford hasn’t done that.
Yeah, there’s not much for Crawford to fight at 147 with the PBC fighters out of reach, but there’s nothing keeping him from going down to 140 or up to 154 to get important fights. Crawford could move up to junior middleweight and take on Jermell Charlo, Jarrett Hurd or Erislandy Lara. Why isn’t Crawford doing that?
As we’ve seen lately, Crawford has been spinning his wheels, watching his career fly by, fighting guys that are doing nothing to make him into a star. Look at the fighters that Crawford has fought since 2017:
- Egidijus Kavaliauskas
- Amir Khan
- Jose Benavidez Jr.
- Jeff Horn
- Julius Indongo
- Felix Diaz
WBO welterweight champion Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) is picking the wrong time to be daring IBF/WBC champ Spence to fight him, given that he’s just been involved in a major car crash just three months ago.
Is Crawford’s trash talking enough to get Spence fight?
“Top Rank and PBC will do business, which explains I think our first headline,” said Max Kellerman to ESPN.com on Crawford. “Terence Crawford, my #1 pound-for-pound, goes at Errol Spence. Does Terence Crawford talk a good game. Here are some of the Tweets said to Spence:
“So what’s been the hold up, homie? When I came to the division, you said I had to get a title first. Now you’ve changed your mind, and are talking about the different side of the street. So I’m just here for another excuse. What’s up? I’m ready when you ready.
“As a matter of fact, I been ready even before I had a 147lb fight. Like I said, you got these people fooled, but not me. Whenever you get back right, I’ll smoke you. All you gotta do is sign the contract, and I’m on your head,’ said Crawford on Twitter.
“This is who Crawford is. He’s a genuine tough guy,” said Kellerman. “This is a guy that took a bullet to the head as a younger pro, and drove himself to the emergency room. But he’s forced to do this on social media because he wants to humiliate and embarrass the roster over at the PBC to step up to the plate. Also, it generates more interest in the fight,” said Kellerman.
Why isn’t Crawford taking risks with his career?
In looking at Crawford’s resume just in the last 5 years, does he really deserve a fight with the likes of Spence, Keith Thurman or Manny Pacquiao? Probably not. Crawford’s best opponent since 2015 is arguably Viktor Postol.
Is a win for Crawford over Postol good enough to EARN a fight with Spence, Pacquiao and Thurman? Beating Postol is a good enough win for Crawford to take on Josh Taylor, Regis Prograis, Ivan Baranchyk, Jose Ramirez and Subriel Matias. Is that too much to ask?
Postol is a good step up opponent for Crawford to fight those guys, but NOT Spence, Pacquiao, Thurman, Shawn Porter or Danny Garcia in this writer’s opinion. Speaking of Porter, he called Crawford out recently, and wanted to fight him. So what does Crawford do? He turns Porter down.
Here’s what Crawford said to Chris Mannix of DAZN last December:
“That’s not a fight that I’m focused on right now or even worried about,” said Crawford to DAZN about a fight with Porter. “I’m focused on other things right now...Right now, I feel like that’s not something we should discuss right now
There it is. Crawford had a big fight on his doorstep being offered to him by former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter, he turns it down. Why do that? You can argue that Crawford is maybe worried about losing to Porter, and then messing him forever for a fight against Spence.
Spence would be a big payday for Crawford
Money-wise, Spence is the bigger payday for Crawford than Porter. Nevertheless, the 32-year-old Crawford has been having problems getting the fight with Spence, and it’s easy to see why. Crawford’s resume is so weak that it makes him not a great option for Spence.
Fans understand that Crawford has almost no one to fight at 147 with Top Rank’s current stable of fighters, but that’s not keeping Terence from moving up or down in weight, is it? If Crawford wants the big fights against Pacquiao and Spence, then he should be increasing his popularity by taking risks. That means Crawford should move up in weight and fight Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Gennadiy Golovkin, Demetrius Andrade, Jarrett Hurd and/or Sergiy Derevyanchenko. If Crawford beat GGG, do you think Spence and the PBC fighters would hesitate about fighting him?
Crawford should follow in Sugar Ray Leonard’s footsteps
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum likes to compare Crawford to Sugar Ray Leonard. But if you remember Leonard, he moved up to middleweight and beat Marvin Hagler. Why can’t Crawford do that? He can move up to 160 and take on Canelo, Jermall Charlo or GGG, can’t he?
If Crawford is really as good as Sugar Ray Leonard, as Arum would have you believe, then why isn’t he following in his footsteps? Leonard wasn’t afraid to take chances with his career. He’s not someone that took soft opposition, and then tries to dare the top guys to fight him like Crawford is doing.
If Crawford did his part in helping Spence make it worthwhile to fight him, then the fight could get made quickly. But in looking at the opposition that Crawford has been facing in the last 5 years, he’s done nothing to build up a fight with Spence.
It’s one thing for a fighter to take on the best, and then call out a fighter more popular and more accomplished. But when a fighter is facing weak opposition over and over like Crawford, then it looks weak when they and trash talk their way into a fight.
Moving up to 160 for big fights would raise Crawford’s profile
Rather than Crawford taking chances with his career fighting at 140, 154 or 160 against the best, he’s beating lesser guys, like Kavaliauskas, Khan, Benavidez Jr. and Horn, and then trying to trash talk his way into the fights.
“Is Errol Spence actually afraid to fight someone? It doesn’t appear that way to me,” said Kellerman. “Certainly not Shawn Porter, who has called out Terence Crawford, saying he would be willing to fight Terence Crawford. Nor Keith Thurman or Danny Garcia. These are all tough guys, and top fighters. When Terence Crawford say, ‘you’re the boss. You tell those guys,’ Al Haymon in this case, ‘who you want to fight.’
“Okay, but Haymon makes these guys a lot of money,” Kellerman said about the PBC welterweights. “By Crawford doing this, he’s raising the profile of the potential fight, and thereby increasing the financial incentive for the two promotional entities. Haymon calls himself an ‘adviser.’ Okay, fine and the two networks to do business. When there’s enough money, you see cooperation,” said Kellerman.
What Kellerman is talking about is Crawford increasing his profile by TRASH TALKING rather than fighting the top guys to do it. That’s a weak way of increasing one’s profile, isn’t it? Adrien Broner was one of the greatest trash talkers of this era, and he raised his profile by talking up fights. But when it came to taking on and beating the best, he couldn’t do it? We’re seeing Crawford trash talk, but look at the guys he’s fighting: Amir Khan, Kavaliauskas, Horn, Felix Diaz, Benavidez and Indongo. Broner was doing better than that.
