Spence: Arum Is Doing Crawford Dirty; Promotes Lomachenko More

[Ruthless-RKO]

Errol Spence Jr. couldn’t help himself.

The unbeaten IBF welterweight champion chastised promoter Bob Arum once Spence learned that the Terence Crawford-Amir Khan fight likely drew less than half the pay-per-view buys as his win against Mikey Garcia produced last month. A satisfied Spence smiled as he discussed that situation with BS.com on Friday following a weigh-in for the Robert Easter Jr.-Rances Barthelemy fight Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan.

“His promoter needs to do a better job promoting him, I guess,” Spence said, referring to Crawford. “I feel like he was a failure on the promotional side, so I think Bob needs to get back to the drawing board if he thinks me and Crawford’s gonna be a 50-50, down-the-middle deal. If I’m bringing in probably over 400,000 pay-per-view buys and he’s doing a hundred and something, why should we split it if we fight each other?”

Neither FOX, which distributed the Spence-Garcia fight March 16 from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, nor ESPN, the distributor of Crawford-Khan a week ago from Madison Square Garden, have officially announced buy rates for those fights.

Spence (25-0, 21 KOs) and Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs) reportedly drew between 350,000 and 400,000 buys. Multiple sources have indicated to BS.com that Crawford-Khan produced less than half the buys Spence-Garcia generated.

According to Spence, a diminished Khan wasn’t the only obstacle that made Crawford’s second pay-per-view fight a difficult sell.

“It’s not just the opponents he’s fighting, but the whole promotional thing behind him,” Spence said. “Like when Showtime promotes and FOX promotes, they really put everything into it. With the Crawford fight, you really didn’t hear nothing until the week of the fight. I kind of forgot about it. I didn’t hear nothing about it until the week of the fight. They started promoting it probably Thursday or Friday. That’s when it really got out there like that. So, I feel like they could’ve done a better job of promoting it.”

Crawford-Khan did receive a sustained promotional push on all of ESPN’s linear and digital platforms. Spence still feels Arum should spend more time promoting the three-division champion than Top Rank’s other elite-level star, Vasiliy Lomachenko.

The 31-year-old Crawford, of Omaha, Nebraska, and the 31-year-old Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs) are generally regarded as two of the top three boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport.

“With Crawford, it’s a lack of promotion,” Spence said. “I feel like Bob doesn’t promote Crawford like he should. I don’t know what that’s about, but I feel like he promotes Lomachenko way better than they promote Crawford. Even with the lead-up to the promotion of the Crawford fight, they were talking about Lomachenko in the same sentence with Crawford. Why are you talking about Lomachenko, when you’ve got your pay-per-view fighter fighting Saturday night? Every time they mentioned Crawford, they mentioned Lomachenko. What are you doing that for, when you’ve got Crawford fighting?

“When I fought on pay-per-view, they didn’t mention guys. They didn’t mention Keith Thurman, they didn’t mention Pacquiao. They mentioned me. They mentioned me versus Garcia, not, ‘Keith Thurman, Keith Thurman, Keith Thurman, Keith Thurman.’ Or, ‘Pacquiao, Pacquiao, Pacquiao, Pacquiao.’ If somebody mentioned Pacquiao and Keith Thurman, it was me who mentioned them, who I would like to fight next. I feel like the proof is in the pudding, how they handled the whole promotion. Me, I wasn’t even watching like that, and I noticed how they were handling the promotion, keep bringing up Lomachenko. Even after Crawford’s fight, they kept bringing up Lomachenko. Why? They’re not even in the same weight class. Why do you keep bringing this guy up? So, I feel like they’re over-promoting him, overkill, and Terence is not a guy who’s gonna speak up. He’s a guy who just wanna fight.”

Spence suggested Friday that he won’t fight Crawford, the WBO 147-pound champion, in a highly anticipated welterweight title unification fight until sometime late in 2020, at the earliest.

The 29-year-old Spence expects to battle WBC champion Shawn Porter (30-2-1, 17 KOs) in his next fight. If he tops Porter, Spence then would like to box the winner of a probable July 20 bout between Manny Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs) and Keith Thurman (29-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC).

Arum said before Crawford defeated Khan that he would call Al Haymon this past Monday to initiate negotiations for Crawford to fight Spence next. The 87-year-old promoter proceeded to lambaste Haymon in the immediate aftermath of Crawford’s win over Khan.

“I like Terence,” Spence said. “I feel like Terence is a great fighter. I’ve nothing but respect for Terence. I’ve got Terence’s number in my phone right now. He wished me good luck in my last fight. I’ve got nothing but respect for him. I just feel like they’re doing him dirty. They gave Tyson Fury that big-ass deal, and then they give Terence Crawford a $3 million deal. Come on! That’s a slap in the face right there.”

[Ruthless-RKO]

Had to nit pick a few small things.. Starting with this.

“His promoter needs to do a better job promoting him, I guess,” Spence said, referring to Crawford. “I feel like he was a failure on the promotional side, so I think Bob needs to get back to the drawing board if he thinks me and Crawford’s gonna be a 50-50, down-the-middle deal. If I’m bringing in probably over 400,000 pay-per-view buys and he’s doing a hundred and something, why should we split it if we fight each other?”

Many say Spence-Garcia did around 400k due to Garcia and the latino's.

Would Spence-Khan have done more than 400k?

How many buys would Garcia-Khan do?

I do think Spence would need to keep fighting big names to stay on PPV. His viewership numbers are usually quite poor.

[SenorPipino]

I figured that Crawford-Khan might do between 250,000 to 275,000.

Apparently it's far lower. Maybe even closer to the 60,000 Crawford drew against Postol.

Indications are that Crawford, for whatever reasons, is simply not box office.

The whispered dismal numbers for last week's fight do reveal that the audience just isn't there to put together an expensive Crawford-Spence fight.

Spence has his share of intriguing opponents to choose from in the PBC stable. He really doesn't need Crawford.

But Crawford only has near anonymous contenders linked up with TR. He really needs Spence far more than Spence needs him.

The only way Crawford-Spence comes together within a year's time is if Spence gets the lion's share of the revenue.

Only that would lure him (and PBC) into accepting a Crawford encounter.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I figured that Crawford-Khan might do between 250,000 to 275,000.

Apparently it's far lower. Maybe even closer to the 60,000 Crawford drew against Postol.

Indications are that Crawford, for whatever reasons, is simply not box office.

Spence's only PPV fights..

* Pacquiao
* Possible Thurman
* Possible Porter

Spence can fight a lot of WW's from PBC, but the only above 3 will do decent numbers.

I don't believe Spence is Box Office wither, it all depends on who he fights.

Most boxers need the BIG names in order to make the BIG PPV money.

Like Canelo, he can sell, and we established around 300,000 will pay to watch him fight regardless, but for that number to double or triple, he NEEDED that big name.

[SenorPipino]

Spence's only PPV fights..

* Pacquiao
* Possible Thurman
* Possible Porter

Spence can fight a lot of WW's from PBC, but the only above 3 will do decent numbers.

I don't believe Spence is Box Office wither, it all depends on who he fights.

Most boxers need the BIG names in order to make the BIG PPV money.

Like Canelo, he can sell, and we established around 300,000 will pay to watch him fight regardless, but for that number to double or triple, he NEEDED that big name.

That's true about all fighters. The bigger the name of the B side, the bigger the PPV numbers.

Even Canelo struggled to draw with a Liam Smith in the opposite corner.

I think he did about 600,000+ against Khan, or at least 3 times what Crawford will probably do against the same opponent.

Spence against even Thurman or Porter will not be a smash. Are either of those 2 box office either?

Maybe more enticing than Khan, but those are 350,000 fights at best. Probably less.

Of course against Pacquiao, you could see it top 500,000, especially if Pacquiao could upset Thurman and reestablish himself as still a legit force.

Crawford has no choice but to be streamed on the ESPN+ app. Maybe even regular ESPN.

There's absolutely no one out there in the TR stable that will lure eyeballs to any more PPV's.

Some describe Spence-Crawford as a modern Leonard-Hearns.

It might not even be Curry-McCrory.

[victor-romeo]

Crawford should try and unify WBC,WBA,IBF Titles and build his name that way while calling out Spence as being afraid to fight him, this tactic I think would work well to getting a fight with Spence and build Crawfords name recognition.

[SenorPipino]

Crawford should try and unify WBC,WBA,IBF Titles and build his name that way while calling out Spence as being afraid to fight him, this tactic I think would work well to getting a fight with Spence and build Crawfords name recognition.

How's he going to get these title when they're all tied up with PBC?

Those are belts that Spence is eventually going to own in the next 18 months.

Spence now says that a Crawford fight won't happen until at least late 2020.

And by then, he'll have probably jumped a weight class.

[victor-romeo]

Don't those ranking organizations have a way to challenge for the belts for people outside of PBC?

[victor-romeo]

I don't know if i looked correctly but I went to WBC,IBF,WBA website and Crawford is not ranked in top 10 by any of them?

[Ruthless-RKO]

I don't know if i looked correctly but I went to WBC,IBF,WBA website and Crawford is not ranked in top 10 by any of them?

Orgs don’t Rank other orgs champions.

Spence ain’t ranked by the others.

Only the WBC try making mandatories. Through the Diamond belt.

[jamamb]

errol also said golden boy treats black fighters poorly, is he one of these cats who just feels every one down on a brother

[IKSRTFO]

More excuses not to fight Crawford. We don't want to here who treats who better or worse. All the fans want Spence to do is get in the ring and prove he's the number 1 guy. Crawford wants it. Spence should too. Spence is not Al Haymon, he's a fighter and should fight. At this point, he's borderline ducking. Arum has put Crawford in there with PBC fighters before.

[IKSRTFO]

Spence's only PPV fights..

* Pacquiao
* Possible Thurman
* Possible Porter

Spence can fight a lot of WW's from PBC, but the only above 3 will do decent numbers.

I don't believe Spence is Box Office wither, it all depends on who he fights.

Most boxers need the BIG names in order to make the BIG PPV money.

Like Canelo, he can sell, and we established around 300,000 will pay to watch him fight regardless, but for that number to double or triple, he NEEDED that big name.

Spence talks as he's doing Mayweather numbers or something. Even he fights Pacquiao, he would be the B side.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Spence talks as he's doing Mayweather numbers or something. Even he fights Pacquiao, he would be the B side.

Thurman vs. Porter was on CBS I think. Did top numbers. Both got paid over a million and it was happy days. Then Spence comes along like he’s the next big thing.

Now Thurman wants PPV’s too.

It’s all greed. Boxers get paid way too much already IMO. Compared to what they fight. I mean just look at Vargas being paid $1.2m last night. He got double the main event purse combined.

[boxing_rocks]

Indications are that Crawford, for whatever reasons, is simply not box office.

Neither is Spence. Mikey brought Latinos hoping to see a miracle.

[Best Coast]

Smart move by Spence in calling out Pacquaio after the Garcia fight. A PPV with Pac would help Spence get name-recognition just like it would for any other top WW (Thurman, Crawford, Porter). Even at age 40 Pac is still the biggest draw at welterweight!!

[Ruthless-RKO]

Did this age well?