Fans on social media are saying Terence Crawford chose to “duck” Errol Spence Jr by suddenly pulling out of negotiations for a mega-fight to face an easy mark in David Avanesyan on December 10th on BLK Prime PPV.
Many boxing fans believe Crawford got scared when he was on the verge of having to fight Spence, who is a much better fighter than anyone that he’s faced in his career.
Further, Crawford isn’t a spring chicken at 35, and he would have been up against it taking on a brutal puncher like Spence. It wouldn’t have the walk-in-the-park-level fight that Crawford has accustomed to having at 147, 140 & 135.
It’s reported that Crawford will be getting paid a 10 million+ payday for the Avanesyan fight, which is an insanely high amount for a fight of this nature. Avanesyan isn’t a big name, and Crawford has never proven himself as a pay-per-view fighter during his career.
Although he’s won world titles in three weight classes, his ability to bring in PPV buys hasn’t happened.
Crawford says he wanted to get a fight in this year, so he opted to fight Avanesyan (29-3-1, 17 KOs) when the negotiations had slowed. However, if Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) had stuck it out in the negotiations, he could have fought Spence in February.
Crawford says he hopes that the fight with Spence can still happen next year after he defeats Avanesyan. However, how can Spence trust Crawford after the way he pulled out of the fight? If Crawford did it once, he’d do it again.
“I thought it was a joke, to be honest with you. Nothing against David Avanesyan, but we all thought the fight between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence was being finalized,” said Dan Rafael to the Fight Nation 156 channel.
“As a boxing fan, you have to be disappointed that he leaves behind a legacy-making fight. Crawford obviously cares he’s going to get a lot of money. Who can blame him for that? I’m not one to count somebody else’s money.
“If he’s getting paid claiming a ten million dollar purse for a David Avanesyan fight, again, who are we to argue with that?
“If somebody wants to pay you a tremendous amount of money for a light night’s work, go take care of business. However, you’re totally legitimately entitled to do that, but I don’t want to hear how you’re the greatest fighter in the world.
“I don’t want to hear how you’re the best thing since Sugar Ray Leonard. I don’t want to hear any of that nonsense. If you are at the level of a Sugar Ray Leonard, you can’t complain about a 15-month layoff because instead of fighting in November, you’re going to fight in February.
“I use the example of Ray Leonard, who he compares himself to, who jumped in the ring after a three-year layoff and fought Marvin Hagler in only his second fight in five years, and he won the middleweight championship. He also moved up two weight divisions to do so.
“Again, you can’t have it both ways. If you want to get the money, go get the money, but you can’t tell me all the other stuff about how great you are and avoid the legacy-sealing type of fight,” said Rafael.
