https://cdn.proboxtv.com/uploads/will_spence_vs_crawford_happen_in_2023_1_0aaf06c43f.png

Will Spence Vs. Crawford Happen In 2023?

If Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford do fight, the rules have now changed in terms of how negotiations happen. 

Spence who holds the WBA, WBC, and IBF welterweight titles has been rumored to fight WBO welterweight world champion Terence Crawford for years now. It appeared close in the fall of 2022, but finical reasons limited the bout, as Crawford opted to fight on BLK Prime. 

“Well, it’s still an attractive fight,” Stephen Espinoza, the president of Showtime Sport said of the mega-fight in an exclusive interview to FightHubTV. “…nobody wants to go through that experience again. I know there’s a lot of different versions of what happened. I know that from this side, it felt like the rug being pulled out from under us with very little notice, and so yeah there’s a little bit of damage control that can be done there. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to jump back in negotiations if there’s an opportunity to do so.”

The fight felt so close to fans, and now feels father than ever. Though Espinoza has explained no hard-feeling exists at the network, it appears both fighters and their camps seem more frustrated with one and another than ever before.

“There were certain points where a range of issues that Terence brought up that really didn’t get resolved and they lingered out there, and then things all fell apart. So, no one wants that dynamic again,” explained Espinoza. “So if this is going to get done—look, we all know what the issues are and what the basic structure is. Either people are interested, or they’re not. No one wants to waste any more time. So, if he’s (Crawford) interested—there’s no perfect deal. There’s an old saying. A good deal is a deal where everyone is unhappy. Instead of trying to get the perfect deal, let’s do the best deal we can under the circumstances before this thing passes its expiration date."

Essentially, the fight lingers on if Crawford will play by the Premier Boxing Champions and the networks rules, or at least that is what it seems like to me. 

“I don’t want to point fingers, but if you ask this side, I think a lot of the dragging on was due to Terence’s own asks and the timetable in which he was responding," Espinoza elaborated. "It seemed like a lot of time would go by after each offer, and there was a stubbornness that dug in after certain points that we thought shouldn’t have been insurmountable. I'm sure he's got a different take on it. Nobody wants to sit there and be in a soap opera of weeks and weeks of negotiations. If we're going to jump back into it, let's jump back into it and get it done quickly."