Terrence Crawford vs Errol Spence: Tease or Reality?
By Ralph Rimpell
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 06 Jul 2022
On April 16, 2022, unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. (28-0, 22KOs) defeated Yordenis Ugas adding the former welterweight champion’s WBA title belt to his current titles (WBC/IBF). The only title Spence has not captured is the WBO welterweight championship which currently belongs to 3-weight division champion (135lbs, 140lbs, 147lbs) and future hall of famer Terrence Crawford (38-0, 29KOs).
After defeating Ugas, Spence publicly stated he was going after Spence’s WBO title. A potential match between the two fighters has been brewing since 2018. In an interview with Max Kellerman in 2018, Spence said before he would consider a fight with Crawford he would have to win a title belt in the welterweight division (147lbs). This was before Crawford vacated his undisputed junior welterweight titles (WBA/WBC/WBO/IBF).
Crawford moved up a weight class and won his WBO welterweight title by defeating Jeff Horn. Crawford is 5-0 in title defenses which have ALL ended in stoppage. Spence has defended his IBF welterweight crown 6 times adding 2 other world titles (WBC and WBA) in the process. Spence’s record in championship fights has been 6-0, 3KOs.
In comparison to Spence, the criticism on Crawford has been his opponents have not been elite fighters. The most accomplished fighter on Crawford’s resume has been former 2-time welterweight champion Shawn Porter whom Crawford stopped in the 10th round last November 2021. Porter went 12 rounds with Spence in 2019 and lost a split decision (out of the 3 judges who scored the Spence vs Porter, 2 judges scored the fight for Spence, the other for Porter).
The issue has been most of the elite welterweight fighters fight for or are under contract with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), a promotional company. Crawford previously had been signed to Top Rank, a different boxing Promoter. His last fight against Porter was his last contractual fight with Top Rank. That was good for Crawford because that was the initial reason why he could not secure a fight with any other PBC fighter in particular Spence. It was a surprise Crawford even secured a fight with Porter who fought for PBC. Perhaps it was because Porter was ready to retire. Porter did in fact retire after his fight with Crawford.
In boxing, opposite Promoters generally don’t put their fighters against fighters signed to other Promoters unless there is a lot of money to be made. Example, Tyson vs Lewis (in 2002) and Mayweather-Pacquioa (2015). It made financial sense for the “Powers That Be” to collaborate in order to generate record making money for Tyson vs Lewis and Mayweather-Pacquiao.
There is no doubt that Crawford vs Spence is a “Superfight”, but this is clearly a fight event for one sole Promoter, not multiple Promoters. Crawford has said there is “NOTHING standing in the way” (his former Promoter) to making the fight, Crawford vs Spence. Is that actually the case, “nothing standing in the way” for the fight to be made? It’s been more than 3 months and NO OFFICIAL WORD when the fight will happen. The UNOFFICAL word is Crawford-Spence will likely happen sometime in October 2022. Boxing Fans were hoping for the fight in summer 2022, but no later than September 2022. There are even UNOFFICAL reports that Spence-Crawford, if signed will happen in October 2022 or even November 2022. Word is Both fighters are asking for $25 million each and are still negotiating the Pay Per View (PPV) percentage split between each fighter. Reports are one fighter won’t settle for NO less than 50% of the PPV revenue. Executives trying to sign the fight are saying both fighters need to be realistic with their financial fight demands.
This writer says there is nothing wrong with fighters asking for “Superfight” money, which as much as possible. In the same manner of the current Real Estate market in the United States, home values are currently very high, “A Seller’s Market”. As an example if a house is valued or appraised between $730,000-$750,000. The Homeowner tells the Real Estate listing agent that he absolutely will NOT sell the home for no less than $2,000,000. One of 2 things generally will happen in that scenario. The Homeowner lowers the price to the appraised value of $730,000-$750,000 and the house is sold in that price range to a willing Buyer, or Homeowner decides NOT to sell and keep their home. The matter is then closed.
In the same manner Crawford and Spence will have to lower their demands for this fight to be a reality. Spence averages about 300,000 PPV sales and Crawford Averages 100,000 PPV sales. The question is, If and when the fight is signed will the fight have a 1 million or more PPV sales? Canelo Alvarez is still the face of boxing and his last PPV fight, which was a loss, against Dimitry Bivol sold a reported 550,000 fights in sales. A performance of 550,000 PPV for a Canelo fight is no doubt attributed to streaming piracy. Crawford vs Spence, if signed, will do very well with PPV sales, but likely not as well as it should because of streaming piracy.
Another question is how well will Crawford vs Spence perform even with good marketing? Therefore, both Spence and Crawford may consider listening to their Advisors for both to agree to a REASONABLE financial package to make the fight a reality. After more than 3 months of Boxing Fans waiting for a formal announcement that the fight is signed, it appears the notion of these two great fighters facing each other may be a tease rather than reality as of the writing of this article.
Is there and agreement for the two best fighters in the division to fight or not fight? Negotiations cannot continue indefinitely. It will reach a point where terms have to be agreed to or both respective camps may have to go in a different direction like the Homeowner who wants 2 million dollars for a $750,000 house. This writer has all the confidence the fight will be signed within the next couple of weeks and a formal announcement will be made. The question is when EXACTLY will that be? Let’s all hope that Crawford Spence is not tease, but will in fact become a reality for the sake of ALL involved.
Boxing Notes
Undisputed junior middle weight champion Jermell Charlo is scheduled to defend his 4 titles against Tim Tszyu. He must make a mandatory defense of his WBO title against Tszyu. If the fight actually happens, I give Charlo a lot of credit. If successful against Tszyu, Charlo has 2 other mandatory defenses. He must defend his IBF title against Bakhram Murtazaliev and also defend his WBC title against Sebastian Fundora. In what order he fights the two will be interesting to see if it even happens. Unifying titles is great. The “best of the best“ fighting each other. However, it’s the aftermath that’s interesting. The unified champion, Charlo, now has to the fight the ENTIRE 154lbs division. Other champions who want to be undisputed should keep this in mind. Let’s see what happens with Charlo’s defenses…Ryan Garcia recently said, in reference to a proposed Tank Davis fight, he is willing to engage in “Transparent Negotiations”. For those who do not know what that means is if a proposed fight between him and Tank Davis fail, the public will know who is to blame because details of the negations will be made privy to the public. A fight with between Garcia vs Davis may happen, but “Transparent Negotiations” for the fight will likely not happen…David Benavidez wants to fight WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo, Former champ Caleb Plant, and then Undisputed supermiddleweight champion Canelo. Those fights are NOT likely going to happen. However, WBA (regular) champion David Morell (7-0, 6KOs) has recently been calling out Benavidez to a fight. If Morell is serious, give him a lot of credit as another 8 to 13 fights more to his record before he faces Benavidez would only benefit Morrell and also increase his chances against Benavidez.
Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com
***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history.
"I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell
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