By Chris Williams: In a sign of pure desperation, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is floating the idea of two-belt welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr agreeing to an odd 40-40 split with 20% going to the winner for a fight against one-belt champ Terence Crawford.
Arum’s plan has virtually no shot of happening in this lifetime, and it’s disappointing that he would even discuss such a scheme.
What it means is that Crawford isn’t going to be willing to take a smaller cut, even if Spence captures his third time in July against WBA champion Yordenis Ugas.
It’s an idea that ignores the fact that IBF/WBC 147-lb champion Spence Jr (27-0, 21 KOs) has more titles and is the bigger pay-per-view attraction than WBO champ Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs).
The 2012 U.S Olympian Spence, 31, is also a bigger ticket seller and is younger than the 33-year-old Crawford, which means it would be a laughable idea to give him parity with a 40-40 split.
“If you want to do a split, you should do a 40-40, and the winner gets another 20%. That would be okay. That’s how you do a 60-40 split,” said Arum to Barbershop Conversations on his solution to make the Spence vs. Crawford fight.
“Wouldn’t it be much more interesting? The UFC, I believe, has done it in a number of fights,” said Arum.
Arum has a dandy idea if you’re name is Terence Crawford, but it’s totally unrealistic and has zero chances of working unless Spence gets beaten.
Yeah, if Spence loses to Yordenis Ugas this summer in their unification fight, a 40-40 split with Crawford would make sense under that type of scenario.
But right now, with Spence being the unbeaten two-belt champion on the verge of becoming a three-belt title-holder, Crawford doesn’t deserve the 40-40-20 split that Arum is talking about.
Chris Williams would go so far as to say that even if Crawford were to beat 42-year-old Manny Pacquiao in their proposed fight this summer, he still wouldn’t rate a 40-40-20 split against Spence.
It’s clear that Pacquiao is past his prime at this stage in his career, and he likely will lose to Crawford if that fight happens.
For Pacquiao to be choosing a lesser fight against Crawford than Spence, it tells you that he views the Nebraska native as the easier option.
Pacquiao wouldn’t intentionally choose the harder fight if he thought he was going to lose. Hence, he’d be going in the path of least resistance if he selected Crawford over Spence.
Instead of Arum banging the drum for Spence to agree to his absurd idea of a 40-40-20 split, he should be trying to talk some sense to Crawford to let him know he needs to take the reasonable 60-40 split that Errol is offering him.
Believe me; that purse split is going to soon increase to 70-30 once Spence captures the WBA strap from Yordenis Ugas.
Additionally, if Crawford ducks the Shawn Porter fight and takes the soft match against the aging fringe contender Josesito Lopez, it wouldn’t be surprising if Spence hardens his stance by offering him a 75-25 take-it-or-leave-it split.
Arum has got to wake up and smell the coffee and realize that Crawford is getting old, and he’s likely to lose his WBO title once he’s forced to fight his mandatory Shawn Porter.
Once Crawford loses his WBO strap, he’ll be like any other aging former belt holder, and he’ll have lost the little bargaining power that he once had for a reasonable purse split against Spence.
All this talk about Crawford getting a fight against Pacquiao could be a mirage, as the Filipino star might end up taking Mikey Garcia. That guy has been trying to talk his way into a fight with Pacquiao for the last three years, and he’s just waiting for his chance.