By Mark Eisner: Terence Crawford headlines tonight in the much-criticized title defense of his WBO welterweight belt on BLK Prime pay-per-view against David Avanesyan (29-3-1, 17 KOs) in a 12-lb bout at the Chi Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Crawford-Avaneysan has a start time of 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 pm PT and can be seen on BLK Prime and PPV.com for $39.99. That’s cheap by today’s standards. However, the fans need to be aware that the undercard isn’t exactly stacked with talent.
Boxing News 24 will give live updates & results below.
- In a one-sided affair, heavyweight prospect Jeremiah Milton (8-0, 6 KOs) defeated Dajuan Calloway (5-2, 5 KOs) by a six round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 59-55, 59-55, and 58-56.
- Undefeated light heavyweight Steven Nelson (18-0, 15 KOs) TKO’d James Ballard (10-5, 3 KOs) in the first round.
Undercard:
Cris Cyborg vs. Gabrielle Holloway
Arnold Khegai vs. Eduardo Baez
Jeremiah Milton vs. Dajuan Calloway
Steven Nelson vs. James Ballard
The 35-year-old Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) is getting paid a truckload of money to defend against Avanesyan by BLK Prime. Still, it could come at a high cost due to his questionable move of walking away from negotiations for a far bigger fight against Errol Spence Jr.
The move on Crawford has fed the perception from fans that he lost his nerve and wanted to continue fighting the fringe-level opposition that he’d been fighting.
If Crawford fails to get the Spence fight in the future, he could regret his decision to walk away from the negotiations with Spence. Of course, if Crawford’s move was made as a way of swerving Spence, then there probably won’t be regret.
Crawford has been paid well for fighting guys like Amir Khan, Kell Brook, and Shawn Porter. Why mess up that money by fighting Spence and potentially getting beaten?
Assuming Crawford wins tonight against Avanesyan, the easiest fight to get made is against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. He’d jump at the chance to fight Crawford to dethrone him and take over as the new WBO welterweight champion.
“He’s tough, Avanesyan is tough, man,” said Crawford’s long-time trainer Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre to Fighthype about David Avanesyan being a tough out for WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford tonight.
“He’s a great counterpunch, and he’s fast too. He’s quick on his feet. He’ll close that distance in a minute. We got our work cut out for us, but I’m excited just for the challenge. We want those big fights to happen,” said BoMac about Crawford fighting Errol Spence Jr and Jermell Charlo.
“It’s all about making sure the business gets lined up the right way, and if it does, we’ll tackle that. We’ll tackle those big fights. Charlo, Spence, whoever is out there that ways to fight.”
