The Insider has dropped a story on how the biggest boxing fight between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. fell apart in the final hour.
The big question is what happened? Here is a breakdown from The Insider.
Spence, Crawford, and Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) boss Al Haymon all wanted this fight to happen, a key source with knowledge of the situation told Insider in October. But, after almost six months of negotiations, the deal is now dead, and it is unclear when, or if, it will be resuscitated.
Two sources with knowledge of the Crawford vs. Spence negotiations told Insider in June that discussions for the mega match were underway, and November was a likely month for the event to take place. With no official announcement in October, Insider checked in with those sources again at that time and were told the fight “will get made,” despite the protracted nature of discussions.
Organizers pushed the fight from November to early 2023 so that they could promote the match sufficiently. With a three-to-four-month promotion, the fight would have stood a greater chance of catching fire and transcending boxing to become a mainstream talking point across sports, one source said. Crawford, according to sources involved with the fight, wanted transparency regarding finances, including how much money the event generated to ensure his purse percentage (payment) was an accurate reflection of the fight’s success.
“He was going to get transparency” throughout, a source told Insider, adding that Crawford made an “unusual” request to also oversee the marketing expenditure for the show.
A boxer usually does not get involved on this side, as their focus is to train and to fight, rather than to sign off on, say, $200,000 worth of expenses that could include things like press tours, free airline tickets for fighter teams, and so on.
According to a source with knowledge of the negotiation, PBC nevertheless agreed and sent Crawford an updated contract after granting his final requests.
However, Crawford never responded.
Instead, he announced an alternative deal with a niche platform called BLK Prime, and said he would be fighting David Avenesyan in December.
This secondary deal “blindsided” Spence and PBC staff, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations. “Nobody saw this coming,” one source said.
The facts are that Crawford took a deal for guaranteed money and an easier opponent with the hope that he would still get the Spence fight in the future. We will see if that was a smart business move or not.
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