By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford says he’s not sure that he would agree to a fight with Errol Spence now even if he were offered a 50-50 purse split.
The Top Rank fighter Crawford isn’t saying what kind of purse split he would need to get him to agree to face IBF/WBC 147lb champion Spence, but it probably doesn’t matter.
Crawford, 33, says he’s waiting on a deal that he’s hoping will come through for his next fight. He wants to fight Manny Pacquiao, but it’s not looking good.
It sounds like Crawford doesn’t want the fight with Spence, nor does he want to face Vergil Ortiz Jr, the young Golden Boy promoted fighter that called Terence out last Saturday night after he destroyed his teammate Maurice Hooker by a seventh-round knockout.
Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) maintains that he no longer cares about unifying the 147-lb division because he already did that at 140 back in 2018. It’s not a big deal for the WBO champion Crawford to try and do that at welterweight.
Crawford insists that he’s “past that” now because Errol (27-0, 21 KOs) tried calling the shots, and he doesn’t go for that.
50-50 split might not be enough for Crawford
“I don’t know, to be honest, because I’m past that,” said Terence Crawford to the AK & Barak Show to DAZN when asked if he would fight Errol Spence if he were offered a 50-50 split.
“I don’t even care about all those titles. I’ve already been undisputed. He’s [Spence] trying to do something I already accomplished in my career. Once I moved up, I get a belt in my first fight at welterweight.
“Now it’s, ‘You’re on the wrong side of the street.’ I’m not going to be playing these games where they say, ‘We’ll fight you when we want to fight you. It’s on our terms.’ It doesn’t work that way with me.
“I don’t know,” said Crawford when asked what it will take for him to want to fight Spence.
“I don’t know where everybody is getting that information, but that’s what people do, that’s what media do,” said Crawford about boxing fans speculating whether he’ll leave Top Rank after October when his contract expires.
Even 50-50 is a pipe dream on Crawford’s part because Spence will never give it to him unless he gets beaten by his next opponent.
Spence is expected to fight WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas next in a unification. But if Errol loses that fight, Crawford probably won’t want anything to do with him.
Crawford prefers Yordenis Ugas over Porter fight
“I told Shawn [Porter] to standby because if the fight we’re working on doesn’t go through, then for sure we’ll visit that fight,” said Crawford about Porter being a potential Plan-B if he doesn’t get the Manny Pacquiao fight.
“We’ll have to see. I don’t know too many details [on the Pacquiao fight negotiations].
‘Ugas because he’s got something to offer,” said Crawford when asked if he’d rather fight WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas or Shawn Porter.
“Why would I choose Shawn Porter with nothing to gain when I can choose Ugas. I’m fighting for something. That’s a no-brainer. Everybody in the game, or should I say, 65% of the people felt that Ugas beat Shawn Porter.
“Given the fact that if me and him were to fight and how the fight goes and how I look against him, then they would compare that to the Shawn Porter fight.
What Crawford fails to realize is that business-wise, Porter is a bigger fight for him than Ugas. Yes, the Cuban fighter Ugas has the WBA title, but Porter is more popular, and it would be a bigger fight for Crawford.
Anyway, none of this will matter if Spence beats Ugas and takes him out of play for Crawford. Other than Ugas beating Spence, Crawford has little chance of fighting the Cuban boxer.
Terence says Porter’s win over Ugas wasn’t clean-cut
“When Shawn Porter is commenting, people say, ‘You didn’t even give Ugas his rematch. You got to fight Ugas.’ That’s always in the back of Shawn Porter. You got to fight Ugas,” said Crawford.
“Everybody felt that Ugas won. Some people say, ‘I’ll give it to Shawn, but it was close.’ It was never a clean-cut victory.
“Kind of like Errol Spence. Some people feel that Porter pulled it off with the knockdown. I felt it was close either way, but I’m not the judge of the fight,” said Crawford.
Porter’s win over Ugas was definitely a controversial victory, but it’s still a win. It was one of those Canelo Alvarez-type controversial wins. True, many boxing fans thought Ugas was robbed, but not enough people saw that fight for Porter to have lost popularity.