By Chris Williams: Max Kellerman of ESPN has a simple answer to promoter Bob Arum’s question of making the fight between unbeaten welterweight champions Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford in 2021. Kellerman’s answer is for Arum to come up with the dough to get the fight done.
It would help if Arum convinced his fighter WBO welterweight champion Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) to give up on his ridiculous idea of being the A-side in the promotion and getting the lion’s share of the loot for the fight.
Crawford, 33, will have to forget about his 60-40 split that he was hoping to get against Spence and come back down to earth long enough for the fight to get made. What will get the fight made?
“Bob Arum asks, ‘What will it take to get the Errol Spence and Terence Crawford fight made in 2021?’ Lots and lots of money,” said Max Kellerman to ESPN.
Chris Williams thinks it’ll require Crawford to agree to a 60-40 or 55-45 split in favor of Spence. Unfortunately, 55-45 is probably an unrealistic number at this point, given the huge difference between the two fighters in terms of popularity.
Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) has already established himself as a pay-per-view fighter with his fights against Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, and Mikey Garcia.
When Crawford attempted his own hand at PPV against Viktor Postol and Amir Khan, his events went down in flames with poor numbers. Of course, those were fights that were doomed for failure on pay-per-view.
You can argue if Spence fought Khan and Postol on PPV, he would have done equally as bad numbers. But the fact of the matter is that Spence is the proven commodity right now when it comes to PPV, which means he’s the one that can ask for the bigger split of the moolah.
What will it take to finally make the @TerenceCrawford–@ErrolSpenceJr fight? @MaxKellerman says it’s simple — it’s all about the money💰 #MaxOnBoxing pic.twitter.com/mHMGH9Hnu5
— ESPN Ringside (@ESPNRingside) January 27, 2021
The problem here is that the sites with Crawford as their #1 or #2 pound-for-pound fighter have likely planted ideas into his head, making him believe he deserves the bigger money or even parity in a match with Spence.
Those fantasy rankings have nothing to do with the real world in business, which fighters bring in the money. Vasily Lomachenko was for a time the # pound-for-pound fighter in boxing, and yet was never a big moneymaker on par with Canelo Alvarez.
It’s starting to look bleak for Crawford right now as far as his future potential goes. He’s about to turn 34, he’s got one or two fights left on his contract with Top Rank, and no prospects for a big payday this year.
Shawn Porter has been complaining on YouTube about being lowballed for a fight against Crawford, talking about only being offered $1 million for that fight. With washed up Amir Khan said to have gotten $7.5 million and Kell Brook $2.5 million, it’s hard to understand why Porter is only being offered $1 million.
If Porter goes the mandatory route with the World Boxing Organization, he’d likely get more than $ million, even with a 75-25 split in Crawford’s favor.
It’s unknown how much Porter is hoping to get against Crawford, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.
For Porter to get the money he wants for a fight against Crawford, it would have to be on pay-per-view. The match would likely bring in excellent numbers, but would Arum want to take that risk, given Crawford’s track record on PPV? Probably not. Hence, it doesn’t look promising for a fight between Porter and Crawford while Terence is still under the Top Rank banner.