Terence Crawford has turned up the pressure on Errol Spence Jr, claiming his fellow American 'really didn't want the fight'.

Crawford, 34, is set to face former world champion Shawn Porter in a mandatory defence of his WBO welterweight title after beating Kell Brook last year.

But he faces a long wait to face Spence Jr, who was due to fight Manny Pacquiao at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, before being replaced by Yordenis Ugas on short notice.

Crawford has not fought since taking care of Brook in four rounds in November and has often spoken of his struggles trying to find a willing opponent.  

His hopes of facing Spence were all but ended when the Ohio native announced he had suffered an eye injury ruling him out of action for the rest of the year.

And as far as he is concerned, Spence didn't want to fight him anyway. 

“Well, you know, like I said before, man, that fight is past me pushing [for it],” Crawford told DAZN.

“You know, I felt like I did everything that I possibly can do, you know, to try to make that fight happen.

"You know, and for some odd reason, you know, everybody kept saying, ‘Oh, I’m chasing him. I’m this and I’m that.’

"Yeah, I was chasing him. You know? And he don’t want the fight. He was saying he wanted the fight, but he really didn’t want the fight.

"You know? And my thing was just if you wanted the fight, you could’ve made the fight happen.”

He also poured cold water on the idea of Spence taking on Canelo Alvarez instead. 

“I don't think that would have been a good fight for Spence now cuz he's, he's right there. He's right there for Canelo," he added.

“Canelo’s the bigger, stronger fighter, bigger puncher. And for Spence, to be right there in front of him trying to get down in front.

“You’re giving him everything [he wants].”

Spence, 31, has beaten every fighter he has faced including former world champion Brook, who was stopped by the American in eleven rounds in 2016 and then lost to Crawford three years later, again by stoppage.   

Crawford was asked if there are any other fights out there that he would be interested in in the meantime and responded: “There’s other fights out there. You know, you got [Yordenis] Ugas just won [against Pacquiao]. You know, that’s a unification bout. That’s a big fight.

"You got Keith Thurman still out there. You got Josh Taylor out there. You got [Vergil] Ortiz out there.

"So, you know, it’s a lot of fights out there to be made. So, I don’t necessarily gotta go to 154 to get a fight. There’s fights at 147.”

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