Paulie Malignaggi questions whether Terence Crawford can handle a big physical welterweight like Errol Spence Jr when it comes time for them to battle for the undisputed championship at 147.
Malignaggi notes that Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) was getting hit last Saturday night in the successful defense of his WBO welterweight title by David Avanesyan (29-4-1, 17 KOs) in their headliner on BLK Prime pay-per-view at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nevada.
With the frequency that the 35-year-old Crawford was getting nailed by Avanesyan, Malignaggi wonders how Terence will deal with getting hit with those same shots with Spence throwing them.
Crawford showed his age against Avanesyan, looking slower and getting hit more than he had in his fights three years ago.
The combination of age and fighting only once a year for the last couple of years has done a number on Crawford’s skills.
Moreover, Crawford has been fighting exclusively mediocre opposition since moving up to the 147-lb division. Staying away from elite opposition has hurt Crawford.
“Errol has been my pick in a head-to-head match-up, and Crawford has been my pound-for-pound pick because of the body of work that he’s done,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Fight Hub TV, comparing Terence Crawford to Errol Spence Jr.
“He’s a more complete fighter. I don’t know physically if he can handle the real physical welterweight that is Errol Spence. It’s a great fight. It makes me think Avanesyan was at his range a lot tonight. I wonder what happens if it’s Errol at that range. It’s interesting. Assuming Errol is healthy after the car accident, let’s get it done.
“It wasn’t his fault, and hopefully, there wasn’t any alcohol involved. It was one of those unfortunate incidents. It wasn’t his [Errol] fault, and that’s a good thing. He [Crawford] was available for that straight left down the pipe because Crawford had that right hand down all night in the bread basket. Maybe that was a trap. It’s going to be a much bigger fighter,” said Antonio Tarver.
“Spence has got to get by a really hungry Keith Thurman, and that fight ain’t going to be a cakewalk. Give what the fans want to see and that’s Errol Spence and Bud Crawford to see who the best in the world is.
“They need to do it sooner than later because sometimes, when you wait, something happens so that we can find out who the best welterweight in the whole wide world is.”
“Maybe Crawford knows that he can handle it from Avanesyan from that range, and it’ll be a different fight with Spence,” said Malignaggi. “We won’t have the fights. All we can do is look at the spots and speculate.”