Terence Crawford remains hopeful that he and Errol Spence Jr. can finally fight in 2021.
Until they actually square off inside the ring, the unbeaten WBO welterweight champion will laugh off the things Spence’s supporters and the IBF/WBC 147-pound champion himself say about their positions within their division. Crawford discussed Spence with Andre Ward during “Relentess: Terence Crawford,” a half-hour preview show that’ll debut at 9 p.m. ET Sunday night on ESPN to promote Crawford’s upcoming fight against Kell Brook.
“When Errol call himself the big fish, I just laugh,” Crawford told Ward. “You know, because you can’t be the big fish if you ain’t fought the orca yet.”
In England’s Brook, the 33-year-old Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) will face an opponent November 14 in Las Vegas that Spence knocked out in the 11th round in May 2017 in Sheffield, England. The 34-year-old Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) will fight at the 147-pound limit for the first time since Spence beat him nearly 3½ years ago.
Three weeks after the Crawford-Brook bout, the 30-year-old Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) will fight Philadelphia’s Danny Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) in a FOX Sports Pay-Per-View main event at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Spence will return to the ring against Garcia on December 5 for the first time since sustaining dental damage and cuts to his face and body in a one-car accident in October 2019 in Dallas.
Crawford, a three-division champion from Omaha, Nebraska, didn’t want to be Spence’s first opponent after his accident. He’ll gladly oppose Spence next, though, assuming they win their respective fights against Brook and Garcia.
“A lot of people will say, ‘Oh, he’s bigger than me. He’s stronger than me.’ How you know?,” Crawford told Ward in reference to fighting Spence. “I get a real kick out of it because I know me and I know what I’m capable of doing, and what I’m gonna do. That’s why I don’t feed into everybody commenting on a social media post. ‘Oh, you running from Spence. You running from this guy.’ Or, ‘You running from that guy.’ It’s always gonna be an excuse. ‘Errol Spence got in a car accident.’ That’s gonna be an excuse. Or, ‘He never was the same fighter.’
“I never wanted to fight him coming off of an injury like that. For what? To set myself up for failure? So, now y’all can say, ‘Oh, this is the reason why?’ I want you at your best. I want you to feel you’re at your best, because I respect you as a man. I want you to look me in my eyes and say, ‘I’m ready. I’m 110-percent ready. And we’re gonna do this. Let’s make it work.’ ”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
