By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford says he’ll keep his phone on, waiting for the call for his next fight as he heads into a vacation after his easy sixth round knockout of David Avanesyan on BLK Prime PPV.
Crawford showed clear signs of age against Avanesyan, and one could see that the reflexes aren’t the same as they were four years ago when he moved up to the 147-lb division in 2018.
WBO welterweight champion Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) is counting on getting a call from Al Haymon of PBC for negotiations to resume a mega-fight against IBF/WBA/WBC champion Errol Spence Jr. Still, it remains to be seen if that fight will materialize.
Crawford already bailed once on the Spence fight, leaving him standing there with nothing to show for all the time that he’d spent trying to put together the match-up. Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) might not want to invest more time in the inpatient Omaha, Nebraska native.
Assuming that call from Haymon/PBC never comes, there are plenty of economy opponents the aging 35-year-old Bud Crawford can fight next, as long as he’s willing to take a less than a premium opponent.
Cheap Economy options for Crawford
1. Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
2. Yordenis Ugas
3. Blair Cobbs
4. Alexis Rocha
5. Rashidi Ellis
Boots Ennis (29-0, 27 KOs) has asked for a fight against Crawford, and he’d take that match-up in a second if given the option.
If Crawford wants to get the most amount of attention in facing a guy that is premium talent but without the same cache as Spence, the 25-year-old Boots Ennis is the ideal option.
With that said, Crawford must be willing to accept that he could lose to Boots and possibly get knocked out because he’s younger, stronger, faster, and equally skilled.
Crawford waiting for that call
“My phone stay on,” said Crawford at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night when asked who is next for him.
“I won’t go as far as 50-0,” Terence Crawford said to DAZN.
“I don’t feel like I’ll be in boxing to get to 50-0. I’ve been in boxing since I was seven years old, and that’s a lot of wear and tear on your body; it gets tough. What I want is to retire from boxing, and I don’t want to let boxing retire me.”
Considering that Crawford has fought only six times in the last four years, he’ll never get to 50-0 without getting beaten.