We have the potential for a Leonard-Duran-Hearns of our era with Spence-Thurman-Crawford and you can’t blame the fans for being impatient. Smart fans can rattle off a whole laundry list of potentially great, era-defining fights that never came to fruition because of the dreaded boxing “marinade.”
For those unfamiliar with the term, to “marinate” a bout in boxing business jargon is to boost interest in a particular match-up through steady promotion and the use of building block fights en route to the target fight. The idea is that a big fight now will be an even bigger fight later, after they “marinate” it properly.
But in cooking, as in boxing, too much marinade for too long can totally ruin the meat.
As I wrote in my Notes from the Boxing Underground column on Monday, the theatrics following Danny Garcia’s KO of Brandon Rios Saturday night were more than a little off-putting to those who want Spence (and Crawford, for that matter) in the mix at the top of 147.
Porter called out Garcia. Garcia called out Thurman. Porter called out Thurman. And then Thurman acknowledged that he’d be up for fighting Porter or Garcia again after a tune-up/rehab fight. But nobody said a word about Spence or Crawford.
OK, if we deal in technicalities, Crawford has yet to officially make his welterweight debut and, plus, his business ties with Top Rank may complicate his inclusion in the deep waters of the 147 lb. talent pool. I get leaving him out of the conversation-- for now. But what about Spence?
Spence is aligned with all the “right” company and companies to be included in the mix, but he doesn’t appear to part of the high-end welter showdown talk.
It’s distressing for those who don’t want to miss out on possibly the best all-American divisional melee in decades to hear Thurman, for instance, brushing off Spence until, maybe, next year (or beyond) and refusing to acknowledge Crawford as a presence at all.
If Thurman thinks he can expand beyond the $1.4 to $2 million pay scale and become a $4 million fighter before fighting a Spence or a Crawford, then he’s being led stray by whoever is advising him. Thurman will become a $4 million (or higher) fighter only BY fighting a Spence or a Crawford. Make no mistake about it, the fights with Porter and Garcia were college graduation; Spence and Crawford are the master’s degree and doctorate.
If left to their own devices, Thurman, Porter, and Garcia may be fine with fighting one another for nice chunks of change indefinitely. The WBC, which has Thurman as its champ with Porter and Garcia as his no. 1 and no. 2 challengers, respectively, is certainly facilitating this possibility. It’s going to be up to Showtime, Haymon Boxing, PBC, and the boxing media to hold some feet to the fire and force Spence and Crawford into the conversation.
Thurman wanting a tune-up after elbow surgery is understandable. And most reasonable fans will accept that a certain amount of “marinade” is going to happen for any big fight (or fights)-- a fighter and his people generally like to pad their bank accounts a bit before taking on such monumental risk.
But let’s not cross that line from fair “marinating” time to ridiculous fan manipulation. Because, if everything plays out true to recent form, fans will be made to wait month after month, year after year, through wallet-padding fighter showcases and up to the point of almost not even caring anymore, until, maybe, they get the fights they want. For once, let’s sign these marquee match-ups when they make sense, with fighters in their absolute physical primes and at a point in their careers where there’s plenty of future ahead for even more big fights.
Let’s start working towards Spence vs. Thurman vs. Crawford now.