By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford was shaking his head indicating ‘no’ and said, “I hope so,” when asked this week by Brian Custer if he sees a fight with Errol Spence Jr happening in 2023.
From the way that Crawford looked when answering the question put to him by Brian, it’s crystal clear that he’s NOT going to fight IBF, WBA & WBC welterweight champion Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) next year.
The wishy-washy response from Crawford to the question about Spence speaks a thousand words. That’s hard work taking on a talent like Errol, and it doesn’t appear that Terence wants any part of sharing the ring with the hard-hitting Texas native.
In that case, Crawford may need to surrender his WBO 147-lb belt because the young lion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis is highest ranking contender in the World Boxing Organization’s rankings, given that #1 Vergil Ortiz Jr is heading in the direction of fighting WBA ‘regular” welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis next.
Crawford’s mandatory with the WBO will be due after his voluntary title defense against #6 David Avanesyan on December 10th, so he will have to face the light against Boots Ennis (29-0, 27 KOs) or give up the belt.
The big $10 million+ payday that Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) is getting from BLK Prime for his fight against Avanesyan may have ruined any chances of a fight with Spence to take place because it arguably spoiled Terence, taking away the ambition that he would have had to make the big money against Errol.
“I hope so, but if not, I wish him the best in his career, and I’ll continue to do what I do in my career,” said Terence Crawford to The Last Stand when asked if he sees a fight between him and Errol Spence Jr happening in 2023.
“I’m not going to sit and wait on NO man to feed my family,” Crawford continued about his thoughts on a fight with Spence.
“If the fight happens, it happens, and if not, it’ll just be one of those fights that go down in history that didn’t happen,” said Crawford about Spence.
If BLK Prime is willing to give Crawford $10M for soft fights against fighters like Avanesyan, it’s not surprising that he doesn’t seem excited about the prospects of fighting Spence.
If the money isn’t going to be that much different for Crawford, why risk his hide against Spence?