Terence Crawford has seemingly shut down fans’ hopes of a fight between him and Errol Spence Jr for June 17th by taking to social media and saying, “April fools.”
Of course, Crawford could be trying to throw off fans by making them believe the fight with Spence isn’t on, so they can surprise them by announcing it later this month. That might be wishful thinking because it’s a fight that has proven to be a major headache to try and put together.
Earlier today, a report from a source on RingTV of WBO welterweight champion Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) and IBF, WBA & WBC champion Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) was set to take place on June 17th in Las Vegas.
The report said that the long-awaited Spence vs. Crawford undisputed 147-lb championship fight would be announced during the April 22nd mega-bout between Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Ryan Garcia on Showtime pay-per-view.
Not surprisingly, some boxing fans on social media saw it as fake news, which, as it turns out, they were right. At this point, the Spence-Crawford fight will likely never take place, and even if it does, it’s already past the sell-by date.
Crawford and Spence should have fought each other five years ago, not now, with both guys rarely fighting and their popularity diminishing rapidly.
It is April Fools! 🤣
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) April 4, 2023
Spence hasn’t fought in a year since struggling to defeat Yordenis Ugas last April, whereas Crawford is coming off a win over fringe contender David Avanesyan last December. That was Crawford’s first fight in over a year since his bout against Shawn Porter thirteen months earlier in 2021.
It’s believed that the problem with putting a Spence-Crawford fight together is the vast guarantees that both fighters want, which would make it a massive risk for the promoters.
Crawford has never shown himself to be a PPV attraction, nor has Spence. The organizers could take a substantial financial bath in putting on a fight between those two unless they were careful in how much they guaranteed them.
Unfortunately, they would likely want a huge amount of money, thinking it’s a mega-fight when it’s not. It’s just two old guys that rarely fight, and when they two, they face mediocre opposition.
This isn’t like Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao, two fighters staying busy with their careers when they finally fought. Both had seen better days when they fought; their lackluster fight reflected that.