By Allan Fox: Regis Prograis says the Errol Spence Jr vs. Terence Crawford fight won’t happen next because the “cliques” in boxing will get in the way. According to Prograis, the different cliques don’t get along.
Prograis points out that the Spence-Crawford fight has been talked about for years, and yet it still hasn’t happened.
With WBO welterweight champion Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) tired of waiting, he decided to go get his “bread” by taking a well-paying $10 million+ fight against David Avanesyan last Saturday night on BLK Prime pay-per-view.
What Prograis isn’t saying is that Crawford’s likely anemic PPV numbers for his “bread” fight against Avanesyan (29-4-1, 17 KOs) will further weaken his already shaky negotiating position for a fight with Spence.
If Craword vs. Avanesyan brings in embarrassing PPV numbers, it’s not going to be enough for crawfish to point to his high pound-for-pound rankings and his WBO belt as enough of a bargaining chip to get the deal he wants against Spence.
For Crawford’s sake, he’d better hope that his fight with Avanesyan brought in tremendous buy totals on BLK Prime PPV because if it brought in minuscule numbers, he can forget about Spence.
Prograis: Crawford getting his bread
“It shouldn’t be that hard. Crawford is a free agent,” said Regis Prograis to Fight Hub TV when asked if he believes the Errol Spence Jr vs. Terence Crawford fight will happen next.
“I know how boxing is. It’s cliques and stuff. Certain cliques don’t get along with other certain sides. I don’t know what it takes to get the fight. I don’t think it’ll happen next.
“We said this two years ago. We’ve been saying this. It’s still not happening. He [Crawford] went about his business. Get your bread. We fight to get our money. Yeah, we want to fight against the best, but if it can’t happen, then ‘I’m going to move on and get my money.’ That’s what he did tonight [against David Avanesyan].
“I definitely think people are at fault. Who? I don’t know,” said Prograis when asked if somebody is at fault for the Spence vs. Crawford fight not happening.
“It doesn’t make sense for it not to happen. There are definitely people at fault. Who? I don’t know. I don’t know the business side of things. The same thing. For me, it didn’t change. We all knew he [Crawford] was going to beat him [Avanesyan].
“Who picked him to beat Crawford? No one picked him. He [Crawford] got his bread, and he packed the house. That was cool.
“That sounds good, but most likely it won’t happen,” said Prograis when asked if the sanctioning bodies could order Spence vs. Crawford. “It’s definitely problems in the sport of boxing, but I’m not in control of it. I can’t do nothing about it.
“I was locked out a long time myself because of that kind of stuff. That’s how it goes. It’ll be nuts,” said Prograis when asked what promotion would be like if Crawford were to move up to 154 to challenge undisputed champion Jermell Charlo.
“That would be one hell of a fight and one hell of a promotion. Maybe he’ll do it. I don’t know.
“It was awesome,” said Prograis about Crawford’s win over Avanesyan. “Terence Crawford is a chess player inside the ring. I saw him all night just setting it up, setting it up. Eventually, the dude broke down, and he pulled him out.
“People were talking about BLK Prime. This event was fire. What I heard on the broadcast is there were 18,000 people here. This event was fire, and he closed out the show.
“I’ll probably give him an eight [on a ten scale]. He’ll probably give himself a higher or lower,” said Prograis when asked to rate Crawford’s performance against Avanesyan. He got hit with some things, but at the same time, he was setting a lot of stuff up.
“I just saw him setting some stuff up. Maybe even a nine because he got hit with some things that were unnecessary. I felt he got hit because he wanted to.
“He was in the pocket sometimes, and it looked like he was playing with him, to be honest. He’s cerebral. He’s a chess player,” said Prograis when asked what it is about Crawford that makes him so difficult to beat.
“He’s setting you up for things at the same time; he’s got power. It’s kind of hard to beat because he has a lot of different variations. He changes up everything he’s doing. He’ll change it up, not just style-wise. He’ll change it up speed-wise, and he’ll change it up power-wise.
“You just don’t know. People get knocked out by shots they don’t see coming for shots they don’t expect. So if you’re hitting somebody and touching them, and then you speed up a little bit and then touch them again with a hard one, it surprises you when you do it. That’s kind of his [Crawford] style.
“He just breaks you down not just physically but also mentally,” said Prograis.
BoMac says nobody calling Crawford
“Nobody at 54 or 47 can beat him. The only question is, who is going to be willing to fight him? You don’t see nobody calling out Bud at 47 or 54,” said Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night.
BoMac failed to mention that Crawford is being called out on a regular basis by Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, a young killer that is gunning for his WBO title.
Perhaps BoMac is intentionally overlooking the unbeaten Boots Ennis (29-0, 27 KOs0 because of the real threat he poses to Crawford.
It would be good for Crawford to show the boxing world that he’s not running scared of Boots because that’s the type of fight that would strengthen his negotiating position for a fight with Spence if he were victorious.
The 25-year-old Boots hits a lot harder than Crawford, and he’s got better hand speed. Also, Boots is a decade younger than Crawford and not even in his prime yet. The way that Boots Ennis is destroying his opposition, he would be a nightmare for Crawford.