By Chris Williams: Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford is getting another easy fight falling into his lap with the WBO ordering him to start negotiations with #1 ranked Alexis Rocha for his next title defense.
After the soft title defense, the 35-year-old Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) just took on December 10th against David Avanesyan on December 10th; he’s getting another gimme against Rocha (22-1, 14 KOs).
The World Boxing Organization ordered Crawford this week to start negotiations with the 25-year-old Rocha. The two have 20 days to negotiate a deal before a purse bid.
According to reports, Golden Boy Promotions are looking to sign Crawford to a three-fight deal, with the second fight being against either Vergil Ortiz Jr or Blair Cobbs, followed by potentially a match against Errol Spence Jr.
There would be a lot of ifs involved because there’s no way Golden Boy could guarantee a fight for Crawford against Errol Spence Jr, particularly if he’s looking to get a 50-50 split.
At this point in Crawford’s long career, him merely getting a fight against Vergil Ortiz Jr would be the Super Bowl because he’s not fought anyone notable other than a played-out Shawn Porter after he’d been beaten by Spence handled by Yordenis Ugas in a fight that he was given a gift decision.
If Crawford wants a fight against Spence, he’d be better off trying to sign with PBC if they’re still in the business of inking high-profile fighters.
At least if Crawford were to sign with PBC, they’d be going in the right direction to try and get the fight with Spence.
It would be a mistake on Crawford’s part to assume that Golden Boy can get him Spence just because they were able to successfully negotiate a deal for a fight between their guy Ryan Garcia and PBC fighter Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
Ryan is a bigger name than Crawford, so it made sense for PBC to want to work with Golden Boy to put together a cross-promotional/cross-network deal for that fight. It doesn’t make sense for PBC to do the same thing with Golden Boy for a fight involving Crawford if he signs with them and Spence.
Crawford’s track record on PPV is dismal, and his recent title defense against Avanesyan last December is rumored to have brought in dreadfully poor numbers. You can’t blame that all on Avanesyan being someone that fans have no interest in paying to see.
A lot of that is also Crawford because he’s not proven himself to be a PPV fighter during his long 15-year professional career.
