By Chris Williams: Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford, will it finally take place this year? There’s been a huge amount of buzz since yesterday after Spectrum cable listed Spence Crawford vs. Crawford as part of their June pay-per-view schedule.
Although there’s no specific date or price for the Spence-Crawford fight, the fact that Spectrum has it listed as “TBD” for June suggests that they know something. This could mean the fight is happening, or it simply could be Spectrum taking a wild guess. That’s hard to believe, though.
What this could mean is IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion Spence and WBO belt holder Crawford are back in negotiations after Terence blew apart the talks last November when he bailed without warning to fight David Avanesyan on December 10th on BLK Prime PPV.
Will Spence give Crawford a second chance?
Crawford had complained about how he’d tried to negotiate with Spence’s management PBC, and he’d done his best to try and make the fight.
Instead of slogging through the negotiations to fight Spence, Crawford took what was rumored to be a $10 million+ payday to defend against Avanesyan on BLK Prime.
It would be very surprising for Spence and PBC to revisit the negotiations with Crwford, given the way he vanished into the thin air on them.
I mean, if Spence is willing to write Thurman off for him not giving him a shot when he wanted it years ago, why would he forgive of Crawford for leaving him standing there with nothing to show for many months of negotiations?
If Crawford really did get that kind of money for the Avanesyan fight, you can’t blame him for disappearing on Spence, but a lot of boxing fans have serious doubts that he got anywhere near that kind of dough.
Never duck no man in my life.
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) February 22, 2023
Spence vs. Thurman talk has gone quiet
What’s interesting is the talk of Spence moving up to 154 to fight Keith Thurman has gone quiet. Nothing is being said about that fight any longer, and you got to believe that if it were happening, you couldn’t keep old ‘One Time’ Thurman from opening his mouth to talk about it 24/7.
It was believed that Spence would make an announcement for his fight with the 34-year-old Thurman, but it is now almost March, and it doesn’t look like that match is going to happen in April like it was widely rumored to be taking place.
Thurman wouldn’t stay quiet if he were next up for Spence because he’s a big talker. The only time Thurman isn’t talking is when he doesn’t have any fights scheduled if Thurman is off the grid again and disappears like he’s been pretty much since he got that bag against Manny Pacquiao in 2019.
