Terence Crawford hits Shawn Porter during a welterweight title match last year (AP Photo/Chase ... [+]
Let’s be blunt: This is lame. So lame. The Super Fight we were expecting for 2022 and craving for a dang-near eternity — Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence Jr. — is officially off the books.
Instead — get ready for a big, fat yawn — Crawford will defend his welterweight crown against David Avanesyan in a pay-per-view match on Dec. 10 at CHI Health Center in the champion's native Omaha, Nebraska, according to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger.
Once the Spence fight collapsed, Crawford turned to Avanesyan (ranked No. 10 by ESPN) to guarantee he competes at least one time in 2022.
Crawford called out Spence and his team for their crumbled deal. "I was really looking forward to the Errol Spence fight,” he said. “I started communicating with [boxing manager] Al Haymon and PBC back in June. And unfortunately, they represent a fighter in Errol Spence who didn't want the fight as bad as I did.”
Of course, Spence blasted Crawford for the failed negotiations.
"I've done everything that I said I was going to do and I'll fight him next and we'll see who is holding the fight up,” he said. “Everybody sees now who is holding the fight up. He had this [fight against Avanesyan] I guess in his back pocket."
Here’s an idea: Let’s blame both Crawford and Spence because they’ve had an eon-plus to lock this baby up.
Both fighters promised the deal is not dead. Sources say Spence and Crawford are targeting the first quarter of 2023 to square off.
If it happens by next spring — if — we would get both fighters still in their primes jousting for all the welterweight gold, and it would be one of the biggest money fights in the sport. But, until ink is on paper, it’s fantasy and getting reminiscent of the massive delays that fans endured to see Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather in May 2015 — a matchup that would’ve been more entertaining a few years earlier when both fighters were still in their prime.
Meanwhile, Crawford, 35, has been a pound-for-pound beast for years, and he looked like the 147-pound sultan that he is when he scored a 10th-round TKO victory over Shawn Porter to retain his WBO title last November.
Spence, 32, has long been considered Crawford’s lone qualified peer. He rebounded from detached-retina surgery with a 10th-round TKO of Yordenis Ugas in April to win the WBA crown that joined his WBC and WBA titles.
But, for now, we wait — and wait some more — for the two best welterweights to face off. Hey, at least, we get Crawford vs. Avanesyan... Yawn.
