Terence Crawford has a clash scheduled on the calendar for Dec. 10 against David Avanesyan, and he still intends to get a fight made with Errol Spence Jr. soon after that, but the Nebraskan has suddenly been caught in a back-and-forth beef with a new foe.

The WBO welterweight champion Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) has been trading a war of words recently with undisputed super welterweight champion and Spence’s fellow Texan stablemate Jermell Charlo. 

“Crawford, he’s scared of Spence, and he doesn’t want to fight because he’s chicken,” Charlo said on Instagram Live. “He wants to try to get to the money. Everybody over here chasing the bag, I hear you. I’m chasing the bag for my family too.” 

The 35-year-old Nebraska native Crawford took offense to Charlo’s statements. 

“Something is wrong with that dude. He’s got to stay off of whatever he’s on,” Crawford told FightHype. “If I can recall, I was already a two-time world champion before [Jermell] was even a champion, both [Spence & Charlo]. 

“So how somebody pig-back on my name when I was already the man? I don’t understand that. I was already on the pound-for-pound list. I was already in talks of being the next best thing since [Floyd] Mayweather retired.

“I don’t understand. I never heard of [Jermell] of being in the talks of any of that sort of anything. So how can I be pig-backing off of him and his brother’s name when I accomplished way more in the sport of boxing? That doesn’t make sense.

“I already said it. I would love to get in the ring and shut [Jermell] up because all he’s going to do is cry afterward. That’s all he does – run around, angry, mad at himself.

“My main focus right now is on David, so I don’t really care about what anyone else has to say to me right about now.

The three-division champion Crawford doubled down on his thoughts in a separate interview with “The Last Stand Podcast” with Brian Custer. 

“Jermell Charlo’s got to understand. He’s undisputed, and he’s done what he’s done in the sport of boxing, but he’s not on my level, nor Errol Spence’s level, and I think that makes him mad and jealous. He feels like he’s supposed to be at the top echelon, but he’s not.

“I’d beat his ass any day, easy.”

A fight between Crawford and Charlo would require Bud to move up to 154 pounds and for Charlo to still have the intent to stay in the division to defend his titles. 

Charlo is gearing toward a matchup with Australian Tim Tszyu on Jan. 28. 

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com.