By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford’s friend Steven Nelson says Canelo Alvarez is their target, and the Errol Spence Jr. rematch if it happens, will have to be at “147 or nothing” because Bud “doesn’t owe” him a fight at 154. It’s business.
Trying to sell a rematch Errol won’t be easy to do because of what happened last July. It doesn’t if it’s hard to sell. Spence has a rematch clause, and Crawford has no choice.
Yeah, Crawford can insist on the rematch taking place at 147 to gain an advantage over Spence, but that won’t cause Errol to change his mind. He wants his get-back, and Crawford forcing the rematch at 147 won’t make Spence give up on the fight.
Fans won’t give Crawford credit if he beats him again because they’ll see him as lacking the confidence needed to fight him at 154. Fans would see it as a low-life move on Crawford’s part if he makes Spence boil down to 147 to ensure he wins the rematch.
Nelson says the Canelo fight means more “money” and “legacy” for Crawford, and that’s what the focus is now. He states that Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) wants to get that “bag” against Canelo.
At this point, the Canelo fight is not looking probable for Crawford, as the Mexican star views it as a no-win contest, so Terence will have to look in a different direction unless he wants to move up to 168 and work himself in position as a mandatory by fighting David Benavidez or challenging WBA secondary super middleweight champion David Morrell Jr.
If Crawford is going to wait on Jermell Charlo, he could be sitting out of action for a while. Also, if Jermell loses to Canelo, trying to sell a fight between him and Crawford would be tough, with him coming off a defeat.
If Nelson thinks it would be a hard sell for Crawford to sell a rematch with Spence, wait and see how difficult it would be doing the thing with Jermell if he’s coming off a knockout loss to Canelo.
Fans won’t want to watch Crawford fighting a guy that Canelo just knocked out, as that would make him look like he’s only fighting for retirement money and not for the sport of it.
Nelson said that if Crawford can’t get the Canelo fight, he could potentially move up to 154 to fight for the WBO title against Tim Tszyu. That’s a fight that would arguably do less money than a Crawford vs. Jaron Ennis fight.
Tszyu is popular in Australia, but he’s not a household name in the U.S. with casual boxing fans. If Crawford is willing to fight Tszyu, he might as well fight Boots Ennis unless he’s lost his nerve and is afraid of him, which a lot of people suspect to be the case.
Crawford has already ruled out fighting Keith Thurman, which is silly because that’s easily the biggest money fight available at 147.
Canelo fight more money for Crawford
“I don’t see him going to 154 unless it was for some more belts,” said Crawford’s friend Steven Nelson to Marko Boxing. “That’s where the contract is at [rematch with Spence at 147]. He doesn’t owe Errol Spence nothing.
“People are like, ‘Man, he should give Errol a better chance at 154.’ Hey, it’s business. It’s a waste of time [Spence rematch]. So it’s 147 or nothing.
“A lot of people say, ‘Why does Bud want to go to 168 and not 154.’ If he goes to 154, then he’ll only go up two weight classes to try and do something that has already been done before, but nobody has gone up three weight classes to try and win.
“So, it’s history & legacy, and it’s more money than will be to fight a rematch with Errol Spence. It’ll be hard to sell that. It’s going to be hard to sell a rematch, whether it’s at 147 or 154,” said Nelson, failing to acknowledge that Canelo has already said he’s not interested in fighting Crawford.
“The only people that want to see that is the Errol [fans] that hope that he wins this time that he does a little bitter. But everyone in the boxing world says, ‘It wasn’t even a close fight.
“I don’t care how drained you are. Your performance is not going to be that much of a difference to make. You’re not going to be that far from your performance,” said Nelson.
