By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford has bailed out on negotiations with Errol Spence Jr to get in a title defense of his WBC welterweight belt against #4 WBC, #6 WBO David Avanesyan on pay-per-view on December 10th at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
Crawford says that he plans on continuing negotiations with Spence for a fight next year after he defeats Avanesyan. We’ll see how that goes because Spence can’t afford to spend huge amounts of time negotiating a fight with Crawford if he’s dug in his heels and won’t budge in the talks.
Compared to the lackluster opposition that the 35-year-old Crawford has been fighting since he moved up to welterweight in 2018, Avanesyan is a huge improvement.
Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) and the 34-year-old Avanesyan (29-3-1, 17 KOs) will be fighting on BLK Prime PPV, according to Mike Coppinger. The price for the card is $39.95.
Despite Crawford not facing a marquee name like Spence or Keith Thurman, he’ll be getting the biggest purse of his career. It remains to be seen how many pay-per-view buys the Crawford vs. Avanesyan fight will bring in.
“I started communicating with Al Haymon and PBC back in June. And unfortunately, they represent a fighter in Errol Spence, who didn’t want the fight as bad as I did,” said Crawford to ESPN.
“I agreed to all of their [B.S.], and they’ve been dragging their a** for months. Spence was nowhere to be found while I was trying to make the deal. David Avanesyan is a very tough task. Once I’m successful against Avanesyan, my plan is still the same: Whoop Errol Spence’s a**,” said Crawford.
But with the price being considerably lower than the normal PPV in this era, it might do a fair amount, but obviously, nothing out of this world. Crawford has never established himself as a pay-per-view attraction, despite having captured world titles in three weight classes.
As for Spence (28-0, 22 KOs), he could face Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman or Eimantas Stannionis next. Whether either of those fights happens, this year remains to be seen.
Spence complained earlier on Thursday that he could have fought in November if not for Crawford “stalling” with the negotiations.
Given that Crawford has already signed to fight, Avanesyan suggests that the “stalling” that Spence noticed was because Bud was negotiating a fight without him knowing.
If Spence was aware of it, he would have told his management at PBC to quickly find him an opponent for November so that he could have two fights this year rather than just one.
Though he can revisit negotiations to fight Crawford sometime next year, been told Errol Spence Jr. will definitely face someone other than Crawford next. Two names to keep in mind for Spence are Keith Thurman (they're both with PBC, rivals, etc.) and Eimantas Stanionis. https://t.co/SqO8qk3DdS
— Keith Idec (@Idecboxing) October 21, 2022
Avanesyan’s recent fights:
Oskari Metz
Liam Taylor
Josh Kelly
Jose Del Rio
Kerman Lejarraga
