WBO welterweight champion Terence "Bud" Crawford talked about the failed negotiations for an Errol Spence, Jr. unification fight on Instagram Live on Tuesday night. Crawford said he got a fight proposal from Spence's advisor / de facto promoter Al Haymon, and then gave his rambling version of what happened after that: "I got two companies that reached out to me and wanted to give me and Spence $25 million guaranteed up front. So I called Spence and told him [about it] and I said to him 'wassup, what you want to do? $25 million apiece guaranteed... we get this up-front money and we're good, it's a no brainer.' But he's not his own boss, he has to go through Al Haymon... he had to go back and ask Al for permission to take this big lump sum of money to fight me. He didn't call me back, so I hit up Al and I told him I had this big hedge fund, not one, but two companies willing to put $20+ million in each of our pockets guaranteed. But Al told me straight up he wouldn't let nobody touch this fight, [he said] 'why would you want to put a cap on yourself?' As negotiations dragged on, I wanted to fight this year, so I asked Al again, why don't you get Spence and yourself, and I'll get my lawyer and we'll meet up and make this fight, signed, sealed and delivered. But Al said that ain't ever happened like that in the history of boxing. I never heard of anyone taking a $0 guarantee [for a purse] to make a fight, but I told them, cool, I'll take no guarantee, I'll take the short end of the money because that's how much confidence I got that I would beat that man. But I just wanted little transparency, to see if the numbers add up to what they're telling me. I never was offered a guarantee, but I took it all, I took the risk. Errol Spence can't say the same. Al told me if I don't take this fight, Spence will make eight figures without me. I'm not the type of guy to sit on my hands for no man [when it comes to] feeding my family. "

 

Crawford concluded, "Ya'wl mad at me for going to get a bag [fighting David Avanesyan on December 10th]?  When did that ever happen? C'mon man, we are going to turn up with [new promoter] BLK Prime and do our thing. They are turning boxing around, they are the new way, they are going to make it happen. After this fight, we're gonna be ready for whatever."