By Chris Williams: Errol Spence Jr is too slow and would be “annihilated by Terence Crawford, says Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum. He’s sounding bitter about IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) not showing interest in fighting WBO champ Crawford, even though the Texas native has repeatedly offered Terence a 60-40 split.
Arum proposes that Spence and Crawford fight on a 40-40 purse split with 20% of the loot going to the winner of the clash.
“That deal would work if Crawford was on the same level as Spence in terms of being a pay-per-view fighter, ticket seller and if he had as many titles.
Spence is on the precipice of winning his third title at 147 after he faces WBA champion Yordenis Ugas in July. When Spence gets his hands on Yordenis’ WBA welterweight strap, that’ll give him the IBF, WBA, and WBC belts.
Arum says Spence blocking Crawford fight
“I really believe it’s Spence that is putting up the roadblocks because he doesn’t want to do the fight,” said Arum to Barbershop Conversations about his belief that Errol isn’t interested in facing Crawford.
Errol would have likely given Crawford the 50-50 split that he wants if he’d fought him before he became a pay-per-view star and IBF and WBC 147-lb champion.
If Crawford were negotiating with Manny Pacquiao, he would likely need to agree to an 80-20 split if he wanted that fight, and he’s not even a belt-holder.
But now that Spence has established himself as the most popular welterweight in North America, it’s difficult to imagine him giving Crawford parity.
“Spence is too slow, and he doesn’t have fast feet. Terence, who can go from lefty to righty, is a much more skilled fighter.
I don’t know what Arum is talking about when he goes on about Crawford supposedly having better hand speed than Spence.
From what Chris Williams can see, Spence has way faster hands than Crawford, and he’s more powerful, bigger, and more rugged.
Spence is built for war at 147, and quite capable of fighting at the elite level at 154 as well.
In contrast, Crawford looked fragile at 147, and more of a pure boxer, who wins his fights due to his opposition not being A-level. If Spence and Crawford were to fight now, Errol would be too powerful and battle-ready for Terence to handle it.
It would be a joke for Arum to be asking for Spence to agree to a 40-40-20 split for the Crawford fight because it’ll never happen in a million years.
The more likely reality is that when Spence captures the WBA title, the 60-40 split that he’d been offering to Crawford will advance to a 70-30, take-it-or-leave-it split.
Hopefully, Arum and Crawford see the light well before it gets to that point and quickly agree to the 60-40 split that Spence has been offering.
Crawford’s resume is an ‘A’ says Arum
“Certainly an ‘A,‘” said Arum when asked to grade Crawford’s resume. “It’s been terrific, he has a great body of work.
“His resume is continuing. While I don’t think we’ll ever get Spence in the ring. You can tell from what he’s saying, he doesn’t want to fight him [Crawford], unlike Shawn Porter, who clearly wants to fight Terence, as long as the money is right.
“Again, if a fighter doesn’t want to fight another fight, just forget about it and move,” said Arum.
Is Arum actually serious about him thinking that Crawford’s resume is an ‘A’ in quality? How does Crawford rate as an ‘A’ when the best name on his 13-year record is Viktor Postol?
Crawford’s best wins:
- Amir Khan
- Kell Brook
- Yuriorkis Gamboa
- Viktor Postol
- Jeff Horn
- Ricky Burns
- Egidijus Kavaliauskas
- John Molina
- Jose Benavidez Jr
Haymon not preventing the Crawford-Spence fight
“Al [Haymon] has nothing to do with it [Spence vs. Crawford] in the sense that I’m sure Al would do it, but Spence doesn’t want to do it,” Arum said about the Crawford vs. Spence fight.
“I mean, when we deal with Shawn Porter another one of Al’s fighters, there’s no interference at all from Al.
“Good,” said Arum when asked how the negotiations were with Porter. “I didn’t negotiate with the kid. I had meetings with his father [Kenny Porter], who is a sensible, bright guy, a pleasure to talk to and deal with.
“The question then, like any negotiations, we’ll ultimately reach a number to get the fight done. They didn’t fall through. That announcement will be coming this coming week,” said Arum about Crawford’s next fight.