By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford weighed in at 1146.6 lbs for his title defense against David Avanesyan for their headliner fight on BLK Prime PPV this Saturday night at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Avanesyan weighed 146.8 lbs.
Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) revealed earlier this week that he feels no pressure on him for his fight with Avanesyan (29-3-1, 17 KOs) to bring in a lot of pay-per-view buys on BLK Prime.
It’s an interesting take because Crawford SHOULD feel pressure. After all, if his fight brings in dismal numbers on Saturday, it could impact future money companies like BLK Prime are willing to offer him. For Crawford not to care how many buys his fight with Avanesyan brings in suggests that he’s disengaged.
Additionally, Crawford’s negotiating muscle would be reduced for a future fight with Errol Spence Jr if his fight with Avanesyan brings in a poor number of buys on pay-per-view.
“I just go in there and try to get the win. I don’t focus on whether I knock somebody out or not. My main focus is making sure I get the win,” said Terence Crawford to Thaboxingvoice when asked how important is for him to continue his six-fight knockout streak since moving up to the welterweight division in 2018.
Undercard weights
Cris Cyborg 154 vs. Gabrielle Holloway 154.6
Arnold Khegai 126 vs. Eduardo Baez 125.8
Jeremiah Milton 250.8 vs. Dajuan Calloway 387.6
Steven Nelson 174.2 vs. James Ballard 175.6
Edel Gomez 175.8 vs. Joseph Aguilar 175.6
Boubacar Sylla 144.6 vs. Javier Mayoral 144.6
Alan Garcia 135 vs. Eduardo Pereira 134.4
Robert Rodriguez 121.6 vs. Jose Lopez 120.4
Alton Alik Wiggins 155.4 vs. Phillip Carmouche 155.4
“It don’t matter if you don’t get the win. The only thing that matters is if you get the win because it’s all going to resort to the same thing at the end. I don’t want to go in there looking for a knockout, rushing into things, and getting caught with stupid shots that I shouldn’t be getting caught with just because I’m looking for a knockout.
“No, because I already stated that I wanted to fight this year. So why would I put everything on hold when something else could have come up?” said Crawford when asked if he would have been willing to wait a few extra weeks to make the fight with Errol Spence Jr in January if there was a possibility of making it.
“I’ve already been out longer than a year. I just want to be active. They’re not feeding your family. They’re not putting money in your pocket,” said Crawford about the boxing fans that wanted him to fight Spence rather than give up on the negotiations to fight Avanesyan for $10 million+.
“They just go online and make up allegations and make up things that they can put online and get a lot of people to say the same thing about it. It’s like a chain effect. Everybody that is in a little group say, ‘Such and such said this, so it must be true,'” said Crawford.
