By Brian Webber: Errol Spence Jr says he’s thinking of moving up to junior middleweight [154 lbs] after learning of Terence Crawford choosing to fight David Avanesyan on December 10th.
Spence’s management had been trying to negotiate a fight with WBO welterweight champion Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) until he pulled this surprise move of electing to defend against Avanesyan (29-3-1, 17 KOs) in December.
Although Crawford expressed interest in still wanting to fight Spence after he faces Avanesyan, saying to ESPN: “Once I’m successful against Avanesyan, my plan is still the same: Whoop Errol Spence’s ass.”
Spence Tweeted this yesterday on Twitter:
[Crawford has] been stalling for months; I could’ve fought in November. Been fighting at this weight for over a decade; this s— ain’t easy or fun.”
“I don’t know who that is,” said Errol Spence to the Dallasnews about Terence Crawford’s December 10th opponent David Avanesyan.
“Everybody sees now who is holding the fight up. I’ve got to talk to my manager, but I already told them I’ve been at this weight too long. I don’t know. I might be moving up,” said Spence.
Errol seems like he’s ready to move up to 154 to begin campaigning in that weight, and it’s understandable why he’s considering doing this.
In Spence’s last fight at 147 in April against Yordenis Ugas, he looked terribly weight-drained at the weigh-in for the fight, showing that he’d gone through agony to get down to the welterweight limit.
With the way Spence looked, that should have been his last fight in the 147-lb weight class because he’s clearly outgrown the division at this juncture in his career.
Given Crawford’s decision to abandon the negotiations with Spence and leave him hanging in the wind, he may have burned a bridge to making that fight.
After that move by Crawford, Spence may have difficulty trusting him, as he could bail out again to fight someone else while telling Errol that he’s still interested in fighting him.
With Spence’s pride, he’s not someone that allows fighters to treat him poorly, which could be bad news for Crawford. It appears that he may have misjudged Spence and foiled things for a future fight between them.
It’s great if Crawford can continue to get eight-figure paydays like he’s reportedly getting for his fight against Avanesyan. Still, if that isn’t the case, he could regret bailing out the Spence negotiations.
If the Avanesyan fight brings in poor pay-per-view numbers, as it likely will, it’s not realistic for Crawford to receive another massive payday from the organizers at BLK Prime for his next title defense if it doesn’t involve Spence.
It’s doubtful that Crawford will continue to get massive paydays if his fight with Avanesyan bombs at the box office.