Crawford ‘100% Confident’ Spence Fight Happens This Year

If the recent show of enthusiasm from the normally tight-lipped Terence Crawford is any indication, the long awaited showdown with Errol Spence Jr. may be imminent.

Crawford, the WBO welterweight titlist, and Spence, who owns the IBF, WBC, and WBA belts, are thought to be on a collision course in the near future to determine, after years of seeming impasse, the undisputed champion in boxing’s so-called glamor division.

While there is plenty of skepticism that the fight will happen, Crawford, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, seemed convinced in a recent interview that the ballyhooed bout will materialize in a timely fashion.

“I’m excited about it,” Crawford said on an episode of The Porter Way Podcast. “I just can’t wait for the contracts to get signed. You know I get to go to training camp just picturing myself walking down that aisle, put on a great show because I know me. I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life to show everybody that doubt me who Terence Crawford is. It’s right there. It’s right there.”

Asked if the Spence fight will happen, Crawford offered an unequivocal response.

“I’m always 100% confident [that the Spence fight will happen],” Crawford said. “This year. Like I said, I meant what I said.”

Crawford added that he believes the fight must take place in Las Vegas.

For the longest time, Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) and Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) were in promotional gridlock because Crawford was signed to Top Rank Inc. and Spence is backed by Premier Boxing Champions, outfits that rarely do business together. Crawford, however, pushed back against the notion that a mutually reinforcing set of promotional obstacles is what has thus far prevented a fight with Spence, suggesting instead that Spence and his backers at PBC were the ones trying to make it seem there was a stalemate.

Spence famously said that Crawford was “on the wrong side of the street,” a metaphor illustrating that Crawford needed to be with PBC in order for the fight to happen. In any case, a large impediment of the fight was seemingly removed last year after Crawford and Top Rank decided to part ways, making Crawford effectively a free agent.

“There have never been stumbling blocks,” Crawford said. “There was never a ‘side of the street’ when it came to Terence Crawford. Terence Crawford divided a side of the street.

“All these stipulations, all these ‘wrong side of the street’, different promotional companies, and all these types of things – they made them up for Terence Crawford. In my eyes, there was never anything that would have stopped a great fight from happening. Tyson Fury and [Deontay] Wilder they fought.”

Crawford, furthermore, stated that once he defeats Spence he plans on challenging newly minted undisputed 154-pound champion and Spence stablemate Jermell Charlo.

“Once I beat Spence, if Charlo don’t move up, I’m coming for him,” Crawford said.