By Craig Daly: Eddie Hearn predicts that Terence Crawford will “quite easily” become a three-division undisputed champion at 154 soon, once he’s clear of his rematch with Errol Spence Jr later this year.
With that said, the British promoter Hearn has severe doubts about whether Jermell Charlo will return to the 154-lb division to reclaim his undisputed champion to defend against Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) because he feels that he has no interest in facing Terence.
Hearn states that once Jermell challenges Canelo Alvarez for his undisputed super middleweight championship on September 30th, he’ll move down to 160 if he loses to the Mexican star and then vacate all four of his 154-lb belts.
Crawford won’t easily become undisputed at 154
Once the four belts are fragmented, Crawford will NOT easily gather them all up, as he’ll need to win them one-by-one, which means it could take him three to four years to accomplish that task, given that he typically only fights once a year.
A conservative estimate would be for Crawford to become undisputed by the time he’s 39, which is pretty old to be still in the fight game, but if he wants to be a three-division four-belt champion, he’ll stay around to accomplish that feat.
What Hearn didn’t mention is the possibility of Jermell defeating Canelo, and then staying at 168 for a rematch, and then facing David Benavidez & Caleb Plant in lucrative fights.
There are far more opportunities to make money at super middleweight for Jermell than to move down to 160, a dead, lifeless division void of name fighters and with zero possibilities to make things happen.
It’s a good spot for fighters who lack the talent to compete at 168 or 154, however,
“I thought he’d stop him, but I didn’t think it was going to be as one-sided as it was,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV on the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Terence Crawford massacre in Las Vegas.
“He becomes a three-division undisputed champion quite easily.
“He’s finally getting the fights to showcase how good he is and to showcase him as a personality because he has quite a lot of it.
Spence can force rematch
“When you do a fight like that, it often comes with a rematch clause, and a lot of the time, it’s down to the fighters to exercise that clause.
“Sometimes the public and the broadcaster don’t actually want to see a rematch, but tough because the fighter has that.
“I don’t know if the terms for that rematch allow for a fight at 154, but I would like to see Terence Crawford fight [Jermell] Charlo, but I don’t think we’ll see that.
“Obviously, he’ll fight Canelo, and then he’ll move up to middleweight, and the belts will come available, so maybe he [Crawford] makes a charge at 154.
“I thought the stoppage was fair because he never stopped trying, but when he tried harder, that’s when Terence was counterpunching him beautifully and making him pay,” said Hearn about Spence.
