Errol Spence Jr. Undecided: Fight Stanionis or Move up to Super Welterweight

For weeks and months, everything had seemed to go smoothly in the negotiations for the long-awaited fight between Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford. And then, as time got close for both to sign the contract, everything went down the drain.

Of course, each fighter has accused the other of being the villain, the irresponsible one who deprived the public of this mega unification match between the two best boxers of the 147-pound division.

The surprising blow was given by WBO Champion “Bud” Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) when he announced that his immediate rival would not be Spence Jr., but instead he would face Russian David Avanesyan (29-3-1, 17 KOs). The fight is scheduled for December 10 in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

As expected, Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) flew into a rage at the rudeness and unprofessional way that Crawford handled things, blaming him for sabotaging the fight to face an unknown fighter who has yet to truly prove himself.

Although Spence said that he doesn’t even know who Avanesyan is, the European boxer does currently hold the “regular” championship title of the WBA and is on a streak of six consecutive wins, all within the limit.

“(Crawford) has been stalling for months, I could’ve fought in November,” Spence tweeted. “Been fighting at this weight for over a decade, this s@#! ain’t easy or fun.”

The reaction of the thirty-two-year-old lefty Spence Jr. was to look for an opponent to fill the gap left by Crawford. And he needs to do this as soon as possible in order to have an opportunity to climb into the ring before the end of the year.

According to ESPN journalist Mike Coppinger, Spence Jr. will clash with unbeaten Lithuanian Eimantas Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs), “regular” champion of the WBA.

At the beginning of the year, Stanionis was in first place in the WBA ranking and had been declared the mandatory challenger against Cuban Yordenis Ugás, then super-champion of that organization. However, Stanionis stepped aside in order to allow Yordenis to face Spence Jr. in a unification match.

To compensate Stanionis, the WBA decided that he would fight against the Russian Radzhab Butaev for the “regular” belt, which the Lithuanian won by split decision on April 16^th in Texas, where on the same evening Spence beat Ugás by technical knockout in the tenth round.

The WBA then mandated that the winners of Spence-Ugás and Stanionis-Radzhab would face each other next, but then the Lithuanian gave up his right so that Spence and Crawford would have the opportunity to match up against each other and determine who would be the first welterweight to hold boxing’s four biggest titles.

However, since Crawford then established an agreement with Avanesyan, now Stanionis has claimed his right to face Spence Jr., just as the WBA had decreed months before.

“I have the first right to fight with Spence,” Stanionis said on social media. “If he does not fight or forfeit the WBA Super Champion title, there will be no WBA Super Duper Champion and only the one I have will remain.”

It’s unclear if Spence will agree to face Stanionis, because he recently expressed that for some time now, he’s been having a difficult time making the scale at 147.

Errol Spence commented on Terence Crawford fighting David Avanesyan next: “I don’t know who that is… Everybody sees now who is holding the fight up… I’ve got to talk to my manager, but I already told them I’m at this weight too long. I don’t know. I might be moving up.”

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