Was The Impasse in the Crawford-Spence Negotiations a Temporary Roadblock?

Although optimists estimate that the unification fight between American world champions Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. will happen next year, others, with a more somber opinion, believe that it will be difficult to actually finalize the fight.

The alarms of uncertainty went off a few days ago, when after months of negotiations, it was reported that the two welterweight champions will not face each other in the future due to what has been called a temporary “impasse” of the long-awaited fight.

There has been a true tidal wave of indignation, especially via social media, pertaining to the announcement that undefeated Terence “Bud” Crawford (38-0-0, 29 KOs) will defend his WBO belt against Russian David Avanesyan (29-3-1, 17 KOs) on December 10th in Nebraska.

“I’m excited about this opportunity,” Crawford told ESPN. “I was really looking forward to the Errol Spence fight. I started communicating with [boxing manager] Al Haymon and PBC back in June. And unfortunately, they represent a fighter in Errol Spence who didn’t want the fight as bad as I did.”

According to various sources, Crawford had contacts with Premier Boxing Champions. Since March 2015, PBC has been directed by Al Haymon, a successful businessman who has rarely offered interviews, very rarely attends fights, lacks an online presence, is not linked to social networks and barely maintains direct communication with the group of boxers he manages.

“I agreed to all of their [B.S.] and they’ve been dragging their ass for months. Spence was nowhere to be found while I was trying to make the deal. I explained to Al Haymon and Errol that I was going to fight before the end of the year. … David Avanesyan is a very tough task. He’s knocked out his last six opponents and this guy is dangerous. Once I’m successful against Avanesyan, my plan is still the same: Whoop Errol Spence’s ass.”

Almost immediately after Crawford’s statements, Spence Jr. attacked the decision of his potential opponent: “I don’t know who (Avanesyan) is,” said Spence Jr., who currently holds the belts of the WBC, WBA and the IBF. “I’ve done everything that I said I was going to do and I’ll fight him [Crawford] next and we’ll see who is holding the fight up. Everybody sees now who is holding the fight up. He had this [fight against Avanesyan] I guess in his back pocket.”

Since December 2017, the thirty-two-year-old Spence Jr. has been considered among the best pound for pound fighters by various publications and specialized sites. Also, The Ring Magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board place him as the second ranked welterweight in the world, behind Crawford.

After 16 months without seeing competitive action, Spence returned last April with a 10th-round knockout win over Cuban Yordenis Ugas. Spence was scheduled to meet Filipino star Manny Pacquiao in August 2021, but had to give up the opportunity due to an eye injury (he underwent surgery to repair a detached retina). His place was taken by Ugás who surprisingly defeated Pacquiao by decision at the T-Mobile Arena, giving the Cuban the WBA (Super) Welterweight Title belt.

Earlier, in October 2019, Spence had another setback in his personal life.  He was involved in a car accident that caused him multiple injuries and kept him out of the ring until December 2020, when he won a unanimous decision over Danny Garcia, retaining the WBC and IBF belts.

Several sources affirm that the Crawford-Spence mega-fight has been moved to the tentative date of February 4, 2023, in Las Vegas. However, not all the details of the contract have been finalized.

On his Twitter account, journalist Dan Rafael wrote, pointing to groups close to the negotiations, that the contract is in Crawford’s hands. He continued that February 4 is an appropriate date, since there are no NFL games scheduled on that date as it is eight days before the Super Bowl.

DAVID AVANESYAN, THE EUROPEAN WELTER CHAMPION

Born in Russia and residing in England, the thirty-four-year-old Avanesyan is ranked 4th in the WBC, 6th in the WBO and 8th in the IBF. He is also a European champion at 147 pounds.

In his fifth defense which was in March of this year, Avanesyan anesthetized Finnish fighter Oskari Metz (16-1, 6 KOs) in the first round.

His most recent loss was by KO in the sixth round by California-based Lithuanian Egidijus Kavaliauskas in Reno, Nevada. Since that fight, he has accumulated six wins, all inside the distance.

Article submitted by Jorge Juan Alvarez in Spanish.

Please note any adjustments made were for clarification purposes and any errors in translation were unintentional.

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