By Norm Frauenheim-
It was a disappointing fight. A significant one, too.
Within the ropes, there’s really not much to say about Errol Spence Jr.’s blowout of Mikey Garcia last Saturday. It was forgettable. But it leaves an immediate impact. It can still be heard in the roaring echoes from that hard-to-ignore crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex.
What’s next?
There’s no more relevant question in boxing or any other business for that matter. Spence’s dominant validation as a leading pound-for-pound contender created an ongoing buzz, an unmistakable demand for the biggest fight out there. Today, there’s a lot more debate about the pound-for-pound’s top spot than there is about the one fight everybody wants to see.
It is Spence-Terence Crawford.
Spence’s scorecard shutout of Garcia put it there and it will stay there for a while, or at least until boxing’s byzantine web of rival promoters and networks suffocates another landmark opportunity.
I’ve heard all the reasons why a potential welterweight classic won’t happen anytime soon. Truth is, I’ve heard those reasons for decades. Different names, different times, same reasons. I know them. Everybody among the more than 47,000 at AT&T Stadium knows them. Everybody in a pay-per-view audience projected to be between 300,000 and 400,000 for the Fox telecast of Spence-Garcia knows them.
Knows them ad nauseam.
The litany of why it won’t happen is all too familiar. It also explains why boxing stays on the fringe, where – to be sure – there’s still money to be made. Yes, Spence and PBC can stay busy through at least next year against Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia and maybe Manny Pacquiao. But I’m guessing many in that AT&T Stadium crowd last Saturday would skip those dates. Spence beats all four and beats them predictably.
The biggest bucks are with the fights that belong on the biggest stage. For now, there’s only one of those bouts. It is Spence against Crawford, who figures to beat a faded Amir Khan on April 20. The rest of the welterweight division will probably avoid each of them. But they have each other and they have a stage waiting for it to happen. If anything, Spence-Garcia will be remembered for a major-league audience hungry for the big-league bout that should soon follow.
All the reasons to believe it won’t, however, are still in place, too. There are no signs that the rival promotions will ever get together on a deal. Spence is with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC); Crawford is with Top Rank. Never the twain shall meet, or at least it looks as if Spence and Crawford won’t until they’re past their primes or have been beaten a couple of times.
Imagine if the boxing business was as divided four decades ago as it is today. History might have been robbed of Sugar Ray Leonard’s 14-round stoppage of Thomas Hearns in 1981. Leonard was 25; Hearns was 23. They were in their primes and at their optimum weight, welter. It was an enduring classic, followed about eight years later in a thoroughly forgettable rematch.
I’m not suggesting that history would repeat itself with Spence-Crawford. Still, it has a chance, a chance to be a classic for a new generation of fans. But there is some urgency to doing it and doing it within the next couple of years. Crawford is 31 years old. Spence, who might soon outgrow the welterweight division, is 29.
Time to make some money. Maybe, some history, too. But it can only happen if the promoters take the time to talk to each other.
