By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford says he doesn’t want to be the B-side for a unification fight against IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. The rationale that WBO champion Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) is giving for why he shouldn’t be the B-side is he feels he’s proven more in his career than Spence.
Despite having a shaky 12-year pro resume from to bottom, Crawford feels he’s beaten the better opposition than Spence. Earlier in Crawford’s career, it was hoped that he would one day take on the best fighters, but that’s failed to happen thus far.
Now 32, Crawford may not have much time left for him to get the big fights that he desires before he loses his skills. It’s not looking good right now. His insistence on parity in negotiations with Spence could potentially keep the fight from happening.
Spence has proven himself as a pay-per-view fighter with his fights against Mikey Garcia and Shawn Porter. Both of those PPV fights brought in a respectable number of buys.
For his part, Crawford has had two pay-per-view fights against Viktor Postol and Amir Khan, both of which did poor numbers. In fairness to Crawford, those were hardly pay-per-view worthy opponents.
Even Spence would have likely done dismal numbers if he’d agreed to fight Khan and Postol on pay-per-view. However, Spence is the type of person to speak up if he sees something he doesn’t agree with.
Crawford rates his accomplishments ahead of Spence
“It comes down to money,” said Crawford to ESPN about putting together fights against the famous fighters.
“Listen, I’ve proved way more than what he’s accomplished in the sport of boxing,” said Crawford when asked if he’d be willing to be the B-side in a fight against Spence. “A lot of people say I haven’t proved anything.
“He beat Shawn Porter and Kell Brook, and I haven’t fought a top welterweight. My thing is, put those guys that I fought in the ring with the guys that he fought and see the difference. Me fighting the guys that he beat is only going to downgrade me. ‘Errol Spence already beat this guy,” said Crawford.
When Crawford talks about having accomplished more with his career, he’s obviously referring to winning world titles in three divisions.
That’s certainly a respectable achievement, which Spence hasn’t matched. But when you look at who Crawford beat to pick up those victories, that’s where the problem starts.
Boxing fans don’t make a big deal about fighters having captured world titles in multiple divisions. One reason for that is the way that the divisions are so watered down with the four titles available in each weight class.
With the sheer number of titles available, it’s easy for fighters to win belts in multiple divisions. Fans focus more on talent. If they see a fighter with a resume filled with big names, then they’re more impressed than seeing someone capture a bunch of paper titles.
Terence not bothered by trash talk
“He already did this to the guy. They try to take credit away from me,” said Crawford. “A lot of people said they were going to do things to me. When it comes down to it, a lot of the things they said was going to happen; it didn’t happen.
“I’m not the type of person that entertains that stuff. I’m more about showing you than telling you. He feels that way, and he’s entitled to feel that way.
“Just like when I called him up and told him that I’m going to beat his a**, I’m entitled to feel that way,” said Crawford.
The trash talk that has taken place between Crawford and Spence doesn’t mean anything. Crawford bringing up other fighters that have trash-talked him in the past doesn’t mean that he’ll come out ahead against Spence. Yeah, Crawford beat the handful of guys that have given him some lip during his career, but that’s not saying much.
It’s no secret that Crawford hasn’t fought the talented fighters at 140 and 147 during his career. In both of those divisions, Crawford failed to fight the elite level guys like Spence, Shawn Porter, Regis Prograis, Josh Taylor, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, and Vergil Ortiz.
That doesn’t mean that Crawford couldn’t beat some or all of those fighters, but we can’t know that because he hasn’t fought any of them yet. Crawford should have stayed at light-welterweight long enough for him to fight Prograis, Taylor, and Jose Ramirez.
Leaving the division without fighting them, it was confusing. Now that Crawford is fighting at 147, nothing has changed. He’s still fighting the best guys.
