By: Hans Themistode
For much of Terence Crawford’s career, the former three-division world champion has been praised for his ability in the ring and castigated for his lack of star power outside of it.
With two pay-per-view appearances to his name, Crawford has failed to draw big-time crowds and in terms of PPV buys, they’ve been lackluster as well. In July of 2016, Crawford made his PPV debut against Viktor Postol. Despite the two unifying titles at 140 pounds, only 7,027 customers walked through the turnstile at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada to pay their hard-earned money to witness Crawford pick up the unanimous decision victory. As for PPV buys, approximately 50,000-60,000 bought the event.
In his second trip to the PPV scene, Crawford did slightly better. In April of 2019, the current WBO welterweight titlist defended his 147-pound crown against Amir Khan at Madison Square Garden in New York City. A crowd of 14,091 attended the event in person and roughly 150,000 purchased their contest as Crawford went on to stop Khan in the sixth round.
When juxtaposed to his long-time rival and unified welterweight champion, Errol Spence Jr., the Dallas native has brought in huge numbers. But while Crawford admits that Spence Jr. has done extremely well, such as the 47,500 who filled up AT&T Stadium in Dallas Texas, to watch the hard-hitting southpaw take on Mikey Garcia in March of 2019, Crawford is adamant that if given the same level of opposition, his numbers would be virtually identical.
“I think if I was fighting the same caliber of fighters he was fighting like a Mikey Garcia, I would fill up the stadium too,” said Crawford during an interview on the Bart & Hahn show on ESPN radio. “Mikey Garcia is a very big draw in Texas.”
Spence Jr., 31, would ultimately go on to dominate Garcia, winning every single round on all three judges’ scorecards. In the aftermath, not only did Spence Jr. vs. Garcia draw a crowd of 47,500 but in total, they raked in an excess of 360,000 PPV buys.
Any mention of Spence Jr. being a bigger draw than Crawford will receive an immediate incredulous gaze from the Omaha Nebraska native. While Crawford may not have the numbers to back his claim, he simply wants everyone to take a closer look at Spence Jr.’s contest against Garcia.
Although the unified titlist is from the Texas area, Crawford places most of their PPV and attendance success on the shoulders of Garcia.
“Not to take away from Errol Spence but I believe Mikey Garcia pulled in more supporters than he did.”