In the midst of beating Errol Spence Jr. senseless, Terrence Crawford appeared to be negotiating a deal for his next ring outing.
The Omaha, Nebraska, native was in the zone this past weekend, taking what many believed was a 50/50 clash and turning it into a one-sided beating. In the seventh, Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) was essentially in cruise control. In the first minute of the round, he sent the 33-year-old crashing down to the deck. With a few seconds remaining, he repeated the feat.
As referee Harvey Dock began issuing his standing eight count, Crawford was seen smiling and jawing back and forth with Jermell Charlo, the current undisputed champ at 154 pounds and a good friend of Spence.
Cameras seemingly caught Crawford telling Charlo “You’re next,” before going out and finishing Spence off. There’s a ton set to take place before the two could possibly line up against one another. For starters, Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) is temporarily abandoning his junior middleweight throne to face Canelo Alvarez at 168 pounds on September 30th. Also, in addition to Charlo having business to attend to, so too might Crawford.
Although he hasn’t fully healed just yet, Spence has already acknowledged that he’ll activate his immediate rematch clause. As long as neither party has a major hiccup along the way, the two could be on a collision course, something Tim Bradley doesn’t believe will end well for Charlo. While the newly inducted Hall of Famer understands that Charlo is prideful and a great fighter in his own right, he has a feeling that the winner of their possible clash is already written in the stars.
“He knows how to beat Charlo already,” claimed Bradley during an interview with FightHype.com. “His team knows how to beat Charlo already.”
Charlo, no matter the outcome against Alvarez, has already stated that he isn’t quite done with the junior middleweight division. Tim Tszyu, however, isn’t likely to simply step aside and allow Crawford to skip to the front of the queue.
Since becoming a world champion well over five years ago, the Houston native has welcomed all challengers. Ultimately, the hard-hitting pound-for-pound star would love to test the chin of Crawford in the not-so-distant future. In terms of how their showdown would play out, Bradley doesn’t see a single attribute that Charlo brings to the table that could place Crawford in a hirsute situation. In fact, if you thought what he did to Spence was impressive, just wait and see what Crawford does to Charlo.
“It’s gonna be destruction. The same if not sooner. He’ll probably stop Charlo a lot sooner.”