Will we actually see Terence Crawford vs Errol Spence Jr in 2022?

Errol Spence Jr vs Terence Crawford. Terence Crawford vs Errol Spence Jr. Whichever way you order the names, that’s the fight everyone has wanted to see in the welterweight division for years now — because it’s the fight to make at 147, and we all know it.

When WBO titleholder Crawford (38-0, 29 KO) announced he was leaving Top Rank last year following his win over Shawn Porter, he cited promoter Bob Arum’s inability to land him the fight with Spence (28-0, 22 KO), who has now collected the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles.

And with Top Rank out of the equation, it seemed like the time was right to make Crawford vs Spence. Both fighters have publicly said they want it to happen next.

But we still haven’t seen a deal get done, and the reasons are pretty much the same as before, it seems, just without the “political” roadblock of Top Rank and Premier Boxing Champions working together.

Arum in the past cited money as the key issue; specifically, that there wasn’t enough of it in the fight to pay both guys what they’ll want. Others, including PBC’s Tim Smith, have said that in the past that this is indeed an issue.

“Trust me, if there is money in him fighting Errol Spence where he can get what he wants and Errol can get what he wants, that fight would get made,” Smith told PBC’s podcast in January. “You don’t want to insult the guy and make him an offer that’s insulting. Nobody wants to do that. He’s a proud champion and you don’t want to do that to him.

“But from a business standpoint, it’s a fight that might excite the fans, and all these people that are out there yelling about pay-per-view, they’re not buying it anyway. They’re not gonna plop down any money to make it successful. They’re going to steal the fight, and the numbers won’t be enough to get him what he wants.”

Arum recently weighed in that piracy is, indeed, a major issue with getting the numbers right.

“It’s a big fight, it has tremendous interest from people who follow boxing. But that doesn’t necessarily translate into revenue from PPV, which is the biggest source, because of the piracy,” he said. “And the fighters realize how big a fight it is and they want to get paid big amounts of money, and the promoter — in this case PBC — has to look at it and say, ‘Hey, we’ll put it on, we’ll give you nice guarantees, but you got to really live from the upside,’ which the fighters realize now will not develop — will probably not develop.”

Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza also recently said that the fight negotiations have hit a snag, but that he remains optimistic.

“I don’t think it’s dead or close to dead. I think there are points where things are moving more quickly, and then points where things are sort of stuck at impasse,” he admitted. “And we’re a little bit stuck but I don’t think anyone’s ready to throw in the towel, least of all the two fighters,” adding, “I am still optimistic that it gets done. There’s still a variety of conversations going on, and I still think it’s very, very possible to get that done this year.”

So what say you? Will we actually get this fight in the ring in 2022?