By Radio Rahim
A welterweight showdown between Errol Spence (23-0, 20 KOs) and Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) is slowly becoming one of the most anticipated fights in boxing.
Crawford, who unified the entire junior welterweight division and also won a world title at lightweight, is making his welterweight debut on April 14th in a mandatory fight with WBO world champion Jeff Horn.
Spence is scheduled to make a voluntary defense of his IBF title on June 16th in Dallas, Texas.
Three division world champion Mikey Garcia, who goes for his fought division belt in March and plans to eventually move up to 147, loves the idea of that fight.
He gives Spence the close edge to win the contest.
"Crawford has great boxing skills. He fights from the left and the right, he can switch. He has the height too, to compete [at 147], and the size. It's not like me where I'm actually real short, he's tall. He uses the height and reach to his advantage, so I think that would be a great matchup. That would be a pretty close, almost a toss-up," Garcia told BoxingScene.com.
"The only reason I'm going with my pick [of Spence], is because of the natural weight. Spence has been there, while Crawford has been moving up from lightweight to junior welterweight and now welterweight."
Garcia does have concerns about the fight coming together.
He's not convinced that Crawford's promoter, Top Rank, would allow that fight to happen. In 2017, Top Rank signed an exclusive content deal with ESPN, and since then their biggest names have not been matched against top fighters who are regularly featured on rival networks like HBO and Showtime.
Garcia was promoted for most of his career by Top Rank, but the two sides had a very bad falling out - including a two year legal battle - and eventually reached a deal to go their separate ways.
"I'm not sure that [Crawford is] going to get [Spence] though, because of the politics and the business. I'm sure he wants it. But if he's with the same promoter, its going to make it a little more difficult to get certain matches. I know how that company works and they have their own agendas," Garcia explained.
"And sometimes it difficult for a fighter not getting the fight that he wants, because your promoter is not willing to work [with others] or just not doing business [with the others]. But if they were actually get it done, it would be a terrific matchup. It would be Leonard-Hearns kind of stuff," Garcia said.
