Terence Crawford has grown as tired being asked about facing other top welterweights as he has with the lack of response from those he’s targeted for years.
From the moment he announced his arrival at welterweight, boxing fans have craved a pound-for-pound showdown between Crawford and Errol Spence (26-0, 21KOs). It’s often the first fight brought up on any given wish list, perhaps now more than ever when sports and mass gatherings as a whole are at a standstill.
For now, it remains just talk—the one thing Crawford has never been big on, nor has a desire to become that way.
“Like I said, it’s easy to say you wanna fight somebody,” Crawford (36-0, 27KOs) told ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe in a recent video interview. “But signing that contract and actually getting in the ring with somebody is a whole different ballgame.
“When someone say they want to fight me, I just take it for what it is until it actually happens.”
The switch-hitting boxing superstar from Omaha, Nebraska is a perfect 14-0 (11KOs) in title fights spanning three weight divisions. He’s claimed lineal championships at lightweight and junior welterweight, but being able to face the very best at welterweight has proven problematic.
The biggest roadblock thus far is that most of his best competition all fights under the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) umbrella, all of whom have been mixed and matched in high profile fights on Showtime and Fox Sports platforms.
Crawford—who is promoted by Top Rank and fight exclusively on ESPN platforms—remains the odd man out, with his welterweight wins receiving less fanfare. He is 4-0 at the weight having beaten three unbeaten opponents (Jeff Horn, Jose Benavidez Jr. and Egidijus Kavaliauskas) and former 140-pound titlist Amir Khan. However, the run has yet to entice the other top welterweights to look his way.
Fans and industry insiders hope that recent events can change that dynamic. ESPN and Fox Sports joined forces to present the heavyweight championship rematch between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder. The February 22 Pay-Per-View event came off largely without a hitch, providing a template for more big fights between the two sides to be made moving forward.
A showdown between Spence and Crawford remains firmly affixed at the top of the list.
“Everybody got to come to the table, sit down agree to some terms that both parties is happy with,” Crawford insists in his best effort to break down how easy it should be to make the fight. “Then there you go, it’s that simple. It’s not hard to make. A lot of people in the media and the outside world think they know how hard it is to make a fight. It’s not hard. All you gotta do is sit down, you know and come to an agreement to make the fight.
“Just like Pacquiao and Mayweather did, just like Tyson Fury and Wilder did. It’s not hard to make a fight. It’s to actually… it’s the money, you know? That’s the biggest thing. That’s a fight I’ve been wanting since before I came into the division. I’ve been calling out this champion, this champion – that was my next goal to become undisputed in the welterweight division.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox