WBA/WBC/WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford says his next fight will be against Errol Spence at 147 rather than 154, but he’s not sure about the date because Showtime will no longer broadcast boxing events after this year.
The way Crawford’s talking, he’s interested in the rematch with Spence taking place at 147, which would give him an advantage because Errol has outgrown the division and arguably should be campaigning at 160. If he’s coming down in weight from 190 lbs, even 154 would be torture.
It makes sense for Crawford to drain Spence down to 147 because that will enable him to look great in the rematch, which will help him get a fight with Canelo Alvarez.
Spence drained = win-win for Crawford
That’s the one that Crawford wants, and beating a drained Spence again emphatically increases the chances of Canelo giving him a shot at his four 168-lb titles.
Now, Crawford had to fight someone young, talented, and not weight-drained, his chances of looking like 24k gold would be less; hence, Crawford is showing zero interest in fighting the newly elevated IBF welterweight champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. He knows what time it is.
Terence’s fans aren’t sympathetic to Spence’s issues. Some say he was a weight bully all these years and owes much of his success to having a size advantage over his opposition.
Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) says the fight with former IBF/ WBA & WBC 147-lb champion Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) is “up in the air” due to the network situation.
The 33-year-old Spence is with PBC, and their co-founder & CEO Al Haymon is reportedly looking for a platform to take his many fighters, including Spence.
If they wind up moving to Amazon Prime, it will be dicey whether the Crawford vs. Spence rematch will sell. For a new platform that has never shown boxing events, it’s reasonable to assume that the Crawford-Spence rematch will bomb and lose money.
If fans have to purchase a membership on Amazon Prime in addition to the PPV price to watch the Crawford vs. Spence rematch, that fight will do incredibly poor numbers.
Without Spence taking a couple of fights in between to rebuild his image with the fans to make them believe he has a chance against Crawford, the rematch will be a disaster for PBC and whatever network stages it.
Crawford has no choice
“We signed to do a rematch, and that’s what it is,” said Terence Crawford to the media about his plan to fight Errol Spence next. “I don’t have a date, but I know that’s the next fight for Terence Crawford.”
It doesn’t matter which network PBC takes the albatross rematch; it will probably do poor PPV numbers. Boxing fans don’t care about that because it’s not their money that will be lost. The organizers of the Crawford-Spence rematch would be the ones going through hardship.
In a perfect world, the Saudis would take an interest in staging the rematch between Errol and Crawford and pay massive amounts of money to both fighters without worrying about whether it would be successful on PPV.
The Saudis probably won’t want to touch that hot potato because of how one-sided the Spence-Crawford fight was last July.
Even with a stacked undercard of A-side guys fighting D-side level opponents for the Crawford vs. Spence rematch card, like we saw with the Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou card last October in Saudi Arabia and the Anthony Joshua & Deontay Wilder event planned for December 23rd in Riyadh, the event will still likely do poor numbers.
“It’s up in the air due to the fact that Showtime has decided not to do boxing,” said Crawford. “Nothing has been noted to me that the fight would not happen. The contract says 147, and that’s where it will be right now. We can decide on 154 or 147.
“He wants to prove to the world that he can defeat me in a rematch. I take my hat off to him,” said Crawford.
