Terence Crawford was tricked by a FAKE Tweet by an Errol Spence Jr. imposter on Tuesday night in which the pretender scolded him for talking s**t on social media and then failing to pick up the phone when he tried to call him to set up a fight.
Thinking it was the REAL IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence (27-0, 21 KOs), Crawford took to social media to criticize him for “lying” to the people about him failing to call.
WBO welterweight champion Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) has been acting a little needy lately, pushing harder than ever on social media and during interviews for Spence to face him in a unification fight.
Thus far, Spence, 31, hasn’t agreed to take the fight, and some believe that he’s on the verge of vacating his IBF & WBC 147-lb titles to move up to 154 to go after some of the belts in that weight class.
Promoter Eddie Hearn predicted earlier this week that Spence would vacate belts to go up to 154, and he says he’s “strategically avoiding” Crawford.
Hearn would likely find out the bitter truth if he were the one that was promoting Crawford all these years, and watching him fail to bring in the PPV buys.
Crawford TRICKED by Fake Tweet
What I miss somebody said what? Who said they did what?
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) December 15, 2021
“Errol Spence, are you lying, saying you called me?” Crawford continued on Twitter. “Don’t do that. That’s a bad look. When you lie to the people.”
Perhaps the closer truth is Crawford has been on the other side of the street all these years, fighting for the rival promotional company Top Rank and having his fights shown on ESPN.
What has further hurt Crawford is his lackluster PPV numbers when he’s attempted to fight on pay-per-view in his matches against Viktor Postol, Amir Khan, Kell Brook, and Shawn Porter.
Granted, those AREN’T the type of fighters that you would want to fight on PPV if your objective was to pull a mess of buys, but still, Crawford’s numbers were dismal.
Crawford is now a free agent, having left Top Rank after his contract with them expired, but that still doesn’t mean Spence will entertain a fight with him.
It’s a problematic situation for Spence and his promoters because the money that would need to be paid in purses will be prohibitive to make the fight with Crawford.
If Crawford had a proven track record that would guarantee that the promoters wouldn’t take a financial bath in a Spence-Crawford fight, it would be worth the risk for them to put this fight together.
Unfortunately, Crawford’s record for PPV has been dreadful, and it’s entirely possible that a fight between him and Spence wouldn’t generate enough PPV buys to cover the enormous purses for the two fighters.
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Now Spence is fighting Ugas for 3 BELTS on the line…. The sport ought to be embarrassed for all the belts floating around in each division; really it’s disgusting. They should go back to the days of Ali, ONE Champion, then Contenders ranked 1 through 20 or 25. Contenders beat Contenders to move up the ranks for a shot at the title. These multiple organizations really make a mockery out of the sport and its fighters. Seeing a fighter draped with 3, 4, 5 belts or more after a fight is comic book stuff, stupid.
This is the problem with Boxing, and too much greed from every angle, spoils looking ahead to potential great fights that happen while in their prime, or the carrot and stick that leads a great fight out for years, diminishing how great a fight “could have been”. Too many divisions, too many belts (there must be 4 or 5 belts in each division; disgusting), too many Organizations, too many promoters, and too many trying to play out the Mayweather Model, to the least amount of risk for the most amount of money. That’s what UFC does better than anyone. One promoter, fights happen timely, one belt, fewer weight divisions, and extremely competitive fights often amongst the best of the best. If you’re well past your prime, you get cut to go fight for a paycheck somewhere else. I could likely see a Crawford-Spence fight get drug out into 2023 or 2024. Just like Mayweather-Pacquiao got drug out… Mayweather-Mosley… Khan-Brook…. even Bowe-Lewis which never happened. Canelo vs Charlo Bros should have already happened, just as Canelo-Benevidez should already be on the calendar. Boxing is horrible at making the best fights often and timely.
This is going to get real old, and lose a lot of respect for both guys if these two start acting the fool back and forth thru social media. Man up both of you and set a date for next Fall. Already starting to show how much more class and professionalism Shawn Porter had than both these guys. Porter was always ready, willing and able to fight the best in their prime, and not horse around acting like a fool. Let’s hope these two fools stop with their kid games, jawing back and forth thru social media. Set a better example in Boxing than that. We already have more than enough of those clowns. Act like a Hagler or Leonard or Duran or Hearns and shut up and put it on the line.
Another tackless writer, who ignores actually boxing talent to hear their own voice. Should know better than to read tabloid disguised as sports writing.