By Dan Ambrose: Terence Crawford gave up on his negotiations for a mega-fight against Errol Spence Jr to get a match this year on December 10th against David Avanesyan.
Crawford hadn’t fought since last November, and he wanted to see action this year with at least one fight, so he opted to face Avanesyan (29-3-1, 17 KOs). Let’s just hope the 35-year-old Crawford doesn’t live to regret his decision.
Although Crawford is reportedly getting a career-high payday against the 34-year-old Avanesyan, it won’t be worth it if he gets knocked out.
Avanesyan is in the prime of his career, and he’s arguably a better fighter than anyone Crawford has fought at 147 or 140.
Of course, that isn’t saying much because the best guy Crawford has fought at welterweight is Shawn Porter, who was pretty well shot by the time he fought him in 2021. Porter’s fights with Spence and Yordenis Ugas took the best part of him, leaving the shell that Crawford beat.
The downside of Crawford fighting Avanesyan is the fight will be shown on BLK Prime PPV for $39.95. Boxing fans that have been accustomed to watching Crawford on ESPN+ in the past will now need to pay to see him fight on pay-per-view, which might be a little too jarring for some of them.
Crawford had hoped to fight Spence on November 19th, but when the date was pushed into early 2023, he chose to fight Avanesyan. Earlier on Thursday, Dan Rafael reported that the Spence vs. Crawford fight could occur on February 4th. However, Mike Coppinger said that the date was “made up.”
“Once I’m successful against Avanesyan, my plan is still the same: Whoop Errol Spence’s ass,” said Crawford to ESPN.
Crawford still wants to try and hammer out a deal with Spence next year for an undisputed clash. Whether it can happen will depend on how much time is involved in attempting to negotiate the fight.
After Spence was kind of burned, this time with Crawford negotiating with Avanesyan while he was with him, it’s predictable that Errol will be looking to set up other fights rather than get similar treatment.
With causing Spence to invest a lot of needless time trying to put a deal together, he might think twice before putting all the energy into resisting the negotiations.
Spence might be better off forgetting about Crawford and instead moving up to 154 to go after Jermell Charlo.
