Fool Me Once, Shame on You!
As fans of boxing, we don’t really see the struggles teams endure while trying to make a fight happen, other than what is shown for marketing purposes. That being said, I fully understand when a team feels wronged or treated less than respectably, and decides to hold somewhat of a grudge against the other team/fighter.
The business of boxing is a cash business and doesn’t come with the regular compensation that “normal” jobs come with, so if things don’t go the way they are supposed to, there is a lot of lost time and effort with nothing to show for it.
This is what is going on with the Terrence “Bud” Crawford (39W-0L) vs Errol Spence Jr (28W-0L) debacle; Crawford and Spence were going through the motions of making a fight happen when Crawford secretly made a fight against practically unknown David Avanesyan (29W-3L), which stopped the negotiations with Spence. Now that Crawford has defeated Avanesyan, by 6th round KO, he wants to restart negotiations with Spence, but Spence is showing a little hesitation, and rightfully so.
If Crawford lets Spence know he is entertaining a bout with another fighter, he could’ve done the same, or he would have at least known there was a possibility that their fight might not be made for the timeframe they were aiming towards. Since that information was not disclosed to Spence and his team, he wasted time and could’ve spent that time making plans to make money fighting a different opponent.
A lot of fans have said that Spence should let that go and just fight, which I hope they do, but when you think about it, that was a very inconsiderate business move on Crawford’s part; Spence lost time and money that he cannot get back. If Spence knew Crawford was working on another deal and decided to still focus on a clash against him, that would’ve been Spence’s decision, and ultimately, he would’ve wasted his own time and money.
Crawford isn’t the first, and definitely won’t be the last, fighter to make untrustworthy decisions but when it happens, you can’t blame the victim (Spence in this situation) and expect the issue to be swept under the rug swiftly.
I’ve witnessed disrespect come in different ways:
*Fighters not being offered a respectable purse or purse split, leaving the fighter to either not take a fight that could elevate their career, or take the fight and get paid peanuts for their time.
*Fighters cancelling bouts close to the fight date for questionable reasons, which means their opponent had a training camp, which costs money, for nothing, unless they can scramble and find a last-minute replacement.
*Well known fighters not helping less known fighters trying to make a name; this is not always a sign of disrespect, but can be viewed in that way depending on the circumstances.
This sport use to be fueled by the determination of creating legacies and proving oneself, but that was before fighters began making multi-millions for a fight; it’s no longer about legacies, it’s more about making the most money the easiest way possible for most boxers these days.
Once a fighter gets to a certain marketing level, their promoter will make sure to milk them for every dollar, which unfortunately causes protected fighters and huge fights not being made, and at the end of the day, the fans are the ones that suffer.
This is the way of the sport right now, which is understandable from a financial business standpoint, but not from the standpoint from what the sport was built on.
Hopefully steps will be made to rectify this from continuing to rob the millions of sponsors (Fans) that shell out 100’s of dollars a year for sub-par fights. That’s me being wishful but I don’t see it happening anytime soon for the majority, but luckily we still have some fighters that dare to be great every time they step in the ring, and continue to call out the best… Can’t do anything but respect that type of fighter in this type of atmosphere!
I’m not trashing Crawford for the way he played this, I’m sure he has his reason for why he operated the way he did, I just want to shine light on the ramifications that can, and should, come with that type of dealings. To all the people that see this as something that’s not a big deal, it would be if you were the one stuck in the dark.
