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By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he questions where Terence Crawford is at mentally right now and he’s not sure whether he can defeat unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.
The WBO 147-lb champion Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) wants to fight Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) next, but this might not be a good time for the soon-to-be 35-year-old Nebraska native.
Spence is looking like a machine with the way he steamrolled the WBA champion Yordenis Ugas this month, stopping him in the 10th round on April 16th in front of a massive crowd at AT&T Stadium in San Antonio, Texas.
The way that Spence broke Ugas’ face, fracturing his right eye socket, Crawford probably isn’t ready for that type of fighter, especially with the way he struggled against faded gatekeeper Shawn Porter last November.
That version of Crawford would be food for the shark-like Spence to tear apart in an undisputed welterweight clash. It might be better for the switch-hitting, counter-punching Crawford to stick with making title defenses of his WBO belt.
“I don’t know. I always thought Crawford was the better fighter. I don’t know where Crawford’s head is at,” said Bob Arum to Fighthype when asked if he believes Terence Crawford can beat Errol Spence Jr. if that fight happens now.
“Spence showed that you have to have a clear head and make the right decisions, and I don’t know if Terence is capable of that anymore.
“I have no idea. Terence is not in contract with us, and so it’s somebody else’s problem,” Arum said when asked if he thinks the Spence vs. Crawford fight will even happen.
Crawford’s two top contenders, #1 WBO Vergil Ortiz Jr., and #2 Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis are like a pair of lethal 7.5 miles diameter earth-shattering asteroids hurtling through space, heading directly in the path of the Omaha native, primed to damage upon impact.
Crawford doesn’t possess a mechanism to steer Ortiz and Boots away from him, so he’s going to need to face one of them or surrender his WBO belt.
If Crawford wants to test whether he can exist with Spence, he would do well to defend his WBO belt against Boots or Vergil.
“That’s fine. I’m not going to lower myself and demand that he leave my gym and so forth. I think we at Top Rank are above that,” said Arum when asked about his thoughts on Crawford training with his fighter Shakur Stevenson ahead of his fight this Saturday night against Oscar Valdez in Las Vegas.
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