By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford is going in the opposite direction of trying to get the fights he wants if he chooses to sign with Golden Boy Promotions and defend his WBO welterweight title against little-known Alexis Rocha next.
Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) wants to fight IBF, WBA & WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr, and undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo, but he’s not going to get either of those fights if he elects to sign with Golden Boy and defend his belt against Rocha (22-1, 14 KOs).
Giving the WBO belt and signing with PBC is the move Crawford should take because it’ll open the doors to him getting the fights that he wants. He won’t get those fights if he signs with Golden Boy because they’re on the opposite side of the track, and their fighters compete on DAZN than Showtime.
Fans don’t know who Rocha is, and it’s just another example of Crawford taking another easy gimme fight, which won’t pay well. Assuming Crawford signs with Golden Boy, it means he’ll be fighting on DAZN, and they’ll stick his fight with Rocha on PPV, which isn’t doing to draw flies.
No one will buy that fight, especially now that DAZN has raised the subscription rates through the roof for U.S. subscribers.
If the 35-year-old Crawford wants to get the Spence & Charlo fight before he ages out, it makes sense for him to sign with PBC because that’s where those guys are situated with. He might have to dump his WBO title, given that the World Boxing Organisation has already ordered Rocha to fight, but that’s not a big deal because titles have become meaningless in this era.
The only time titles mean anything is if you’re not popular, and even then, it works against a fighter to hold a title because then they get stuck fighting obscure challengers that do nothing for their career. An example of that is Crawford being ordered to defend against Rocha.
In an example of somebody not knowing who Alexis Rocha is, former WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas questioned who the fighter is after hearing the news of the WBO ordering Crawford to defend against him.
This is without disrespect and excuse the question. Who is Rocha?? What record do you have?
— Yordenis Ugas (@YordenisUgas) February 27, 2023
If Ugas doesn’t know who Alexis Rocha is, you can bet that casual boxing fans have never heard of him, either. What this means is that if Crawford signs with Golden Boy and they stick his fight against Rocha on PPV on DAZN, it’s going to do poor numbers, which wreck any chance he ever had of fighting Spence or Charlo.
