By Dan Ambrose: Negotiations are still ongoing between inactive welterweight champions Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford, but it’s not looking good.
Mike Coppinger says the more likely next fight for Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) is Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman at 154.
Boxing fans already gave up on the Spence-Crawford fight a long time ago, and it would be smart for Errol’s management at PBC to wake up and smell the coffee because that fight is dead, dead and dead.
PBC needs to have an ear to the ground to understand that fans are no longer interested in Spence vs. Crawford, and they want to see Errol move on already.
When you get a promoter that fails to understand that they’ve waited too long to pull a trigger on a fight, it blows up in their faces when they stage it.
Coppinger says Spence vs. Thurman is “far more likely” to happen next, which makes sense because the WBO champion Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) doesn’t have much to offer.
The Nebraska native Crawford is NOT well known to casual boxing fans, and he’s coming off of a fight against David Avanesyan. that is rumored to have brought in dismal numbers on BLK Prime PPV last December. If that isn’t enough for PBC to get a hint that Crawford is a lousy option for Spence, I don’t know what is.
The 34-year-old Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs), and he’s a poor choice as well for Spence. PBC should scrap that idea and let Thurman return to his semi-retirement. Spence needs to fight relevant opposition at 147 or preferably 154, given how difficult it is for the 32-year-old Desoto, Texas resident Spence to make weight at welterweight.
Options for Spence:
- Sebastian Fundora
- Jaime Munguia
- Jermell Charlo
- Erislandy Lara
- Liam Smith
- Gennadiy Golovkin
- Jermall Charlo
- Xander Zayas
- Janibek Alimkhanuly
As big as Spence is, he should have no problem-fighting guys from the 154 & 160-lb division because he walks about in the 180s. Those guys also walk around at the same weight, so it makes sense for Spence to widen his talent pool to dig up better opposition than what’s currently at 147.
The 147-lb division is barren of popular fighters right now, and it won’t help Spence if he fights Crawford, Vergil Ortiz, or Eimantas Stanionis because those guys have no personality, and the fans won’t be interested in paying to see Errol fight them.