Former undisputed champ Terence Crawford now says he doesn’t want Errol Spence Jr fight at all!
At this point WBO welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (37-0, 28 KO’s) is out of pocket! From the moment Crawford touched his first toe into the welterweight division, fans have craved one fight over all others. A bout against IBF and WBC welterweight champion Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr (27-0, 21 KO’s) is what gets everyone animated and excited.
Spence and Crawford know it. Neither fighter has had two consecutive interviews without being asked about the other in years.
So to hear the WBO champion say he is completely uninterested in the fight is equal parts sad and infuriating. It invokes a melancholy emotion realizing there is a very real chance this fight never happens. Or similar to Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, we are served the super fight well passed its “sell by date.” Yet, in a recent interview on the Ak and Barak Show, Bud sounded more disenchanted than ever.
“I don’t even care about all those titles [IBF and WBC]. I was already undisputed. He is trying to do something that I already have accomplished in my career. So me personally, I don’t really care anymore. I just want to continue putting on the performances that I have been putting on in the past, beat whoever they put in front of me, make my money and provide for my family.
“All the other stuff I don’t care about anymore.”
HALF AINT GOOD ENOUGH!
The apathy in those sentiments is troubling. Crawford comes off like he has no further ambitions for proving his dominance or facing the best. So long as he collects his minimum fight guarantee he’ll happily pummel a litany of second tier fighters into the sunset. While it’s true that he did become undisputed at junior welterweight, wouldn’t it be a nifty idea to become undisputed in two-divisions? You know, similar to Hall of Fame fighters like Evander Holyfield and Emile Griffith?
Naturally Crawford doesn’t want to hear this, but the current day welterweight division is much more treacherous than the junior welterweight landscape he unified all the belts in. If Crawford became undisputed at welterweight, it would easily dwarf the previous accomplishment. These are not facts that required the detective work of Batman or John Shaft. These are surface level revelations! The next logical conclusion is perhaps money is the issue, yet even there Bud manages to dash our hopes anew.
When asked if he would fight Spence for 50/50
“I don’t know to be honest. I don’t know, because I am past that. I’ve been calling for those fights since I was at 140. If you go all the way back before I even became undisputed, before I even had a welterweight fight I was calling out Keith Thurman, Errol Spence and all those guys. And once I moved up everybody was saying get a belt, get a belt.
“I get a belt my first fight, not no tune-up no nothing. My first fight at welterweight. Now it’s you on the wrong side of the street. I’m not about to be playing these games were they say, ‘oh well, we fight you when we want to fight you. It’s on our terms and this, that, this and that.’ It don’t work that way with me. Either we going to fight and that’s that. If not, it’s cool.
“I’m comfortable were I am at. I’m cool.”
DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!
If Crawford will not face Spence, or PBC stablemate Shawn Porter, who will he fight? It should not be a great surprise to hear that he is holding out hopes to dance with Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. Bud and his promoter Bob Arum have been teasing this potential showdown since 2020. Whether it’s all smoke and mirrors is yet to be determined.
Provided the WBO champion secures a fight with Pacquiao no one can really gripe. Pacman is a living legend, guaranteed pay-per-view, a solid payday and a great name for the resume. You just can’t be mad at a fighter for cashing in that ticket. If that match is not made, however, then who Bud collides with next will be of extreme importance. Crawford seemingly wants the royal flower petals of Zamunda sprinkled before his walking feet. This seductive delusion is holding up production and causing quite a bit of collective rage.
Like it or not Spence has accomplished more at welterweight than Crawford. One needs look no further than the Truth’s two belts versus Bud’s single title. Going a step further Spence has fought the better competition within the welterweight division. Not only this, his events have done better financially than have Crawford’s.
Therefore, minus pining about his glory days at junior welterweight, Bud brings very little to the negotiating table that warrants this “kingly” treatment. Hopefully something will shift in the near future but at the moment it looks like Crawford v Spence is just a pipedream.
By: Bakari Simpson
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