By Chris Williams: Steven Nelson, a friend of Terence Crawford, says Bud is offering the rematch to Errol Spence at 147, and if he chooses not to accept it, the Omaha, Nebraska native will move up to 168 to face four-belt super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez to try and become a three-division undisputed champ.
What Nelson says about Crawford moving up to 168 to face Canelo if the Spence rematch doesn’t happen sounds like a pipe dream that has no chance of happening in this lifetime.
Canelo already said this week he’s NOT going to fight Crawford if he moves up to 168 because there’s nothing for him to gain.
Crawford must face murderers’ row
If Crawford wants to move up to super middleweight and earn the fight against Canelo by beating the Murderers’ Row, David Benavidez, David Morrell Jr., and Demetrius Andrade, then another thing, but that’s obviously not what he has in mind.
Crawford wants to move up to 168 and be given a straight shot at Canelo without working for it. That’s not happening, though, as Crawford will not be given a fight with Canelo without running the gauntlet by beating Benavidez, Morrell Andrade Jr., and Diego Pacheco. If Crawford doesn’t want to do that, he’s out of luck.
Spence likely will take the rematch at 147 if that’s the only option to face Crawford again, so this is all pointless junk.
There’s no way that Spence will walk away from all that money and give his chance to try and avenge his loss to Crawford. With the $20 million payday Spence can get fighting Crawford again, he’ll have no problem boiling down to 147 again.
If Spence loses, he loses, but he won’t give up on the rematch if Crawford says it can only happen at 147.
“Bud is offering Errol a fight at 147. If he doesn’t take it, which we’re hoping he doesn’t because it’s a waste of time, Bud wants to do something that’s never been done and move up three weight classes to beat Canelo,” said Steven Nelson on social media.
“Then he’ll fight Charlo at 168 for undisputed. Everything has strategy behind it,” said Nelson when told by a poster that Crawford might not get the fight for the undisputed at 168 if Jermell Charlo defeats Canelo Alvarez on September 30th.
Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) hasn’t confirmed that he’s only offering Spence the rematch at 147. With Crawford winning their July 29th fight, the rematch clause enables him to choose which weight the second fight with Errol will take place.
So if Crawford wants it to be at 147, he can do that, which would make it difficult for Spence, obviously because he had a hard time making the weight last time.
There are rumors floating around that Crawford will agree to move the rematch to 154 if Spence makes it worthwhile for him to do so.
If it’s true that Crawford is giving Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) only one option of boiling down to 147 for the rematch, that would be a petty move on Terence’s part, as Errol didn’t have to face him last July. He allowed Crawford to fight him; it would be a sad statement if he were forced to fight him at 147.
Terence needs to focus on what’s real
Instead of Crawford focusing on a fight that will never happen against Canelo, he should be defending his IBF title against his mandatory Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis because that belt will be stripped from him if he doesn’t make that defense.
If Crawford moves up to 154, his options are limited to Brian Mendoza, Tim Tszyu, Jesus Ramos, Sebastian Fundora, and Erickson Lubin. Those are not PPV starts, unfortunately, for Crawford.
Jermell Charlo has already said he’s not returning to 154 and that if Crawford wants to fight him, he’ll have to do it at 160.