By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford says he doesn’t care anymore about fighting welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr in a unification fight, as he’s just focused on making more at this point and providing for his family.
Apparently, Crawford doesn’t care about fighting top contenders either, as he ruled out fighting #2 WBO Vergil Ortiz Jr next last Saturday.
So it’s not just Spence that Crawford doesn’t care about fighting. It seems more of a case of Crawford not being interested in fighting guys that could potentially beat him.
Crawford prevents the Spence clash and the Vergil and Shawn Porter fights from happening.
WBO 147-lb champion Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) states that he’s already become the undisputed champion in the past at 140, and he’s not interested in doing that now. Crawford’s main focus is to entertain, win and make money.
Unfortunately, what Crawford doesn’t realize is that by failing to fight talented fighters like Spence and Shawn Porter, his fights aren’t entertaining to watch, and he makes less money than what he could make.
Watching Crawford beat up on over-matched fighters like Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Egidijus Kavaliauskas, and Jose Benavidez Jr is the opposite of entertaining.
“I was already undisputed. I don’t care anymore. I just want to keep putting on performances, beat whoever they put in front of me, make money, provide for my family. All the other stuff I don’t care anymore,” said Crawford to the AK & Barak Show @SiriusXMBoxing & DAZN on why he doesn’t care about fighting Errol Spence any longer.
The boxing public wants to see Crawford and Spence fight not because it would be a unification fight. They don’t care about that garbage.
The fans want to see Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) and Crawford fight because they view them as the best fighters at 147, and they’re familiar with both of them from having followed their respective careers.
Crawford believes that the only reason fans want to see him and Spence fight is because it would be a unification. That’s not what it’s about.
If Crawford wants to make as much money as possible, he needs to fight Spence because he’s not going to get that same money fighting Josesito Lopez, a fighter rumored to be Terence’s next opponent.
Crawford is shortchanging himself by fighting guys like Khan, Brook, ‘Mean Machine’, Horn, Benavidez, and Julius Indongo.
It looks like Crawford is more interested in milking his WBO 147-lb title as much as possible to extend his time as a champion rather than take risks by fighting Errol Spence Jr, Shawn Porter, and Vergil Ortiz Jr.
That’s okay if Crawford just wants to milk his WBO title against mediocre opposition, but he needs to tell the fans what the deal is so they won’t continue to encourage him to fight better opposition.
Some casual boxing fans blame Spence for the Crawford fight not getting made, saying that his talk of offering him a 70-30 & 80-20 split is a sign that he’s blocking the fight.
In fact, Spence has been offering Crawford a 60-40 split for the longest time, but he’s failed to agree to it. Why? I guess you can say that Crawford doesn’t want any of that smoke.
It’s ludicrous to say that Crawford deserves the larger split against Spence because he’s not a pay-per-view attraction like Errol, and he only has one title, the WBO strap, which some fans view as the least prestigious of the four title belts.
Spence isn’t going to give Crawford a 50-50 deal when he doesn’t bring as much to the table as he does. Even Manny Pacquiao had to take the smaller share when he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Crawford needs to swallow his pride and agree to the 60-40 split while he still can because it’s not going to always be there for him.
Once Spence beats WBA champion Yordenis Ugas in his next fight, he’ll get THREE titles [IBF, WBA & WBC] at 147, and that’s going to put Crawford in an even worse position than he is now in the negotiations with him.