By Chris Williams: Errol Spence Jr posted on social media earlier today, saying he’s not sure he’ll be fighting next after being “blindsided weeks ago.” 

Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) had been in negotiations with Terence Crawford until a few weeks ago when it was announced that the Nebraska native would be defending his WBO welterweight title against David Avanesyan on December 10th on the BLK Prime PPV platform.

The move by Crawford, which some boxing fans felt was highly unprofessional, took Spence by surprise because he had no idea that he would do this.

As far as Spence was concerned, he thought he would be fighting Crawford next, and he’d invested a lot of time in the negotiations for this fight. All that time was wasted by Spence, and now he has to decide on what he wants to do.

Spence has been ordered by the WBC to defend against his mandatory Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman, a fighter that he’d vowed in the past never to fight him.

If Spence chooses to dig in his heels and continue to refuse to fight Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs), he’ll be stripped of his WBC title, and there will no longer be any point in his chasing his dream of becoming the undisputed welterweight championship.

Spence would need to move up to 154 to reinvent himself in a new weight class, which is virtually barren of name fighters apart from Jermell Charlo, who only fights once a year.

Of course, if Spence says at 147, he would need to take a risk of negotiating with Crawford a second time, and it might be worth it. When a person has shown you how they interact, it’s foolish to return to deal with them because coming events cast their shadows before.

It might be better for Spence to wash his hands of the situation with Crawford and either go in the direction of the Thurman fight or move up to 154.

It’s money that Spence is after; he can make a bundle fighting Thurman in early 2023 because that’s a fight that is arguably the biggest one available to him at 147. Spence-Thurman would likely bring in more PPV buys than Spence vs. Crawford because Thurman is much better at marketing his fights than Terence.