Notebook: Spence on doorstep of longtime goal of being undisputed
Coin flip will determine whether Spence or Crawford walks to ring last; Robeisy Ramirez in Japan for 1st featherweight title defense; Smith-Eubank II officially rescheduled; Quick hits; Show and tell
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When Errol Spence Jr. was a member of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team he was widely viewed as the best professional prospect and he has more than lived up to the expectations.
Since winning the IBF welterweight title on the road by knocking out Kell Brook in the 11th round in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England in 2017, Spence has been a dominant champion and ascended near the top of the pound-for-pound rankings with only injuries holding him back from being more active.
He has defended the title six times — all without dispute — mostly against top opposition, including Lamont Peterson, Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia and Yordenis Ugas. Only mandatory challenger Carlos Ocampo in 2018 was viewed as a soft touch.
Spence’s wins over Porter (WBC) in 2019 and Ugas (WBA) in 2022 were unification fights, leaving him one belt shy of 147-pound undisputed status.
That’s where WBO titleholder and fellow pound-for-pound elite fighter Terence Crawford comes in. Spence and Crawford, after five years of build, will finally get it on to crown the undisputed champion (and first male in the division in the four-belt era) in the most significant fight of the year on July 29 (Showtime PPV and PPV.com, 8 p.m. ET, $84.99) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
It is the fight Spence has wanted for years. It is a fight he refused to let get away from him, giving in on many points during difficult negotiations to assure the deal would get done. He said repeatedly that he did not want to move up to junior middleweight without having faced the one opponent viewed on his level that the fans and media had demanded he face.
Now he has the fight and says he is ready to go.
“This is what I’ve worked for my whole career,” Spence said on Thursday at his media day workout in Las Vegas, where he moved his training camp well ahead of when he normally would arrive at the site of his fight. “I want to be that undisputed welterweight champion of the world and I’m excited to go up against a great opponent like Terence Crawford to accomplish that.
“I’ve been fighting the best for a long time. When you see all the legends of the sport, they fought each other and made historic fights. That’s what I want to do. Terence is one of the best fighters in the world and I’m one of the best fighters in the world, so we had to make this happen.”
Derrick James has trained Spence for his entire career and said that becoming undisputed champion has been his goal all along.
“This means everything,” James said. “From the moment Errol turned pro, he said what he wanted to do. There were so many steps he had to take to get to this point, and now there’s just one more step to take. Being undisputed champion is everything he wanted.
“Our goal is to be able to push like we push in every fight. We’re going to use everything we’ve used to be successful throughout Errol’s career. It’s up to Terence if he can step to that.”
Spence (28-0, 22 KOs), 33, a southpaw from of DeSoto, Texas, is the slight underdog — a position he has no quarrel with — but as confident as can be that he will maintain his perfect record in a fight whose winner most expect to receive universal recognition as the pound-for-pound king.
“It’s definitely business as usual but we’ve still amped up the training because of the opponent I’m facing,” Spence said. “Terence can really fight and I believe that we’re gonna put on a great show and a great performance.
“I’m not worried about being the underdog. People can say what they say and have their opinions. I just have to go prove them wrong. I’ve been feeling the buzz for this fight. Anywhere I go they’ve been asking me about this fight. I knew I had to make it happen. This is what everyone wanted. We have to prove who the man is in the welterweight division and in boxing. The winner of this fight is the best fighter in boxing period.”
I will be in Las Vegas covering Spence-Crawford. Upgrade to a paid subscription and make sure you don’t miss any posts.
While Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs), 35, of Omaha, Nebraska, has made his name by winning titles in three weight classes — lightweight, undisputed at junior welterweight, and welterweight — Spence has spent his entire career as a welterweight. He is proud of the fact that on his way to collecting three belts he has taken each off a reigning titleholder instead of winning a vacant strap, as Crawford did when he won his first belt at junior welterweight.
“Every belt I’ve gotten I’ve taken from somebody. I beat champion after champion,” Spence said. “I’m going through the ringer fighting the best guys in my division. There’s a big difference between facing a champion and someone without a belt. The guys with the belts have a lot more to fight for.”
He said he is willing to fight as hard as he can to take hold of the last belt he needs to complete the welterweight collection.
“It’s gonna be an amazing fight. This fight is gonna be a war of attrition,” Spence said. “It’s a guts and glory type of fight.
“I don’t think there’s anyone I fought who’s similar to Terence Crawford. His style is different from anybody else. I don’t think Sugar Ray Leonard fought anyone like Tommy Hearns until he fought Tommy, and vice versa. That’s what happens in these historic fights.”
Coin flip
In any big fight negotiation the matter of who will walk to the ring last must be settled. In the case of Spence-Crawford, Spence said during his media availability at his workout on Wednesday that a coin flip will determine who will come to the ring second, which most fighters prefer.
Spence, who is the so-called “A side” in the promotion as the fighter who has three of the belts, is billed first and has had more commercial success, figured to have the right to walk last.
However, he made several concessions to Crawford to make sure the fight was finalized. One of them was not the guarantee he would walk last — unless he wins a coin flip, which will take place at a time to be determined during fight week but perhaps at the final news conference on Thursday.
“Even the ring walk we gotta flip a coin to see who’s gonna walk last,” Spence said. “Even though I’m the A side, we gotta flip a coin.”
Ramirez defends in Japan
Newly crowned WBO featherweight titleholder Robeisy Ramirez fulfilled his goal of winning a world title and now it’s time for him to defend it.
Ramirez will make his first defense against fellow southpaw Satoshi Shimizu in the co-feature of unified junior featherweight titlist Stephen Fulton’s defense against Japanese pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue, who vacated the undisputed bantamweight title in January to move up in weight, on Tuesday at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
The four-fight U.S. stream is slated to begin at 4:45 a.m. with Ramirez-Shimizu at about 6:30 a.m. and the main event at approximately 8 a.m., according to Top Rank.
“Just a few months ago, I fulfilled my cherished goal of becoming world featherweight champion,” Ramirez said through an interpreter. “The time has now come for the first defense of my title, and I couldn’t be happier or more honored for it to be in Tokyo, Japan, in front of a sold-out arena and as chief support to the much-anticipated unification clash between Fulton and Inoue.
“I’m looking forward not only to the fight, but also experiencing all that this beautiful country has to offer with its passionate boxing fans, it’s vibrant culture and rich history, among so many other things.”
Ramirez (12-1, 7 KOs), 29, the two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist, won the vacant 126-pound belt by one-sided decision over former junior featherweight titlist a Isaac Dogboe, a 2012 Olympian from Ghana, on April 1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He scored a 12th-round knockdown in the 119-108, 118-109, 117-110 victory.
Now Ramirez is going face another Olympian in Shimizu (11-1, 10 KOs), 37, who represented Japan at the 2008 and 2012 Games. He has won three fights in a row since a sixth-round knockout to Joe Noynay in July 2019. This will be his first world tile opportunity.
“Becoming world champion was a big leap in my quest to be considered the world's top featherweight and eventually becoming a consensus pound-for-pound fighter,” Ramirez said. “My battle against the tough and experienced Shimizu will be another important stop in my journey.”
Shimizu was a bronze medalist in the 2012 Olympics, defeating Dogboe in the tournament before losing to eventual gold medalist and former world title challenger Luke Campbell.
Smith-Eubank II rescheduled
Boxxer formally announced what has been expected: That British middleweight rivals Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr. will meet in a rescheduled rematch on Sept. 2.
However, contrary to Eubank’s recent social media post saying it would take place at The O2 in London, the fight will take place at AO Arena in Manchester, England, the same venue that hosted their first encounter on Jan. 2, when former junior middleweight titlist Smith (33-3-1, 20 KOs), 34, pulled the upset via fourth-round knockout.
“The rivalry between Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr. has quickly become one of the most heated in British boxing,” Boxxer CEO Ben Shalom said. “Their January fight was one of the most exciting encounters in Boxxer history.”
Eubank (32-3, 23 KOs), 33, exercised his contractual rematch option and the fight was scheduled for June 17 and then delayed to July 1 because Smith suffered what was termed a minor injury. Then it was delayed indefinitely until rescheduled for the new date this week.
“I’m glad that the date is set now and we can look forward to getting rid of this itch that needs scratching,” Smith said. “I’m fully healed up now, injury-free, and I’m looking forward to finishing Chris Eubank Jr.’s career.”
The fight will headline a Sky Box Office pay-per-view card in the United Kingdom and Ireland. A United States broadcaster was not announced, although DAZN carried the first fight as part of a regular subscription.
“No more excuses, no more postponements,” Eubank said. “Smith can’t run forever. Sept. 2 is the day of my revenge.”
Quick hits
Top Rank on Thursday made official the rest of the Jared Anderson-Andriy Rudenko heavyweight tripleheader on Aug. 26 (ESPN, 10:30 p.m. ET) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Efe Ajagba (17-1, 13 KOs) will face Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-0, 18 KOs) in the 10-round co-feature, confirming a previous Fight Freaks Unite report, and the opponent for newly signed 2020 Olympic gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov (12-0, 12 KOs) will be Onoriode Ehwarieme (20-2, 19 KOs) in their eight-rounder. Appearing on the ESPN+ part of the card, featherweight prospect Bruce Carrington (8-0, 5 KOs) will be in an eight-rounder; middleweight Nico Ali Walsh (8-0-1, 5 KOs), Muhammad Ali’s grandson, will face Sona Akale (7-1, 4 KOs) over six; lightweight prospect Abdullah Mason (9-0, 8 KOs) will be in a six; junior lightweight Charly Suarez (15-0, 9 KOs), a Filipino Olympian, will face Yohan Vasquez (25-3, 20 KOs) in a 10-rounder; and Kazakh Olympian Ablaikhan Zhussupov (3-0, 2 KOs), a welterweight, will box in an eight.
Junior featherweight Elijah Pierce (17-2, 14 KOs), 26, of Oklahoma City, will face Mike Plania (28-2, 15 KOs), 26, of the Philippines, in an eight-rounder that will headline Overtime’s first OTX card on Aug. 4 (DAZN, 7:30 p.m. ET) at OTE Arena in Atlanta. Three more shows will follow on Aug. 11, 18 and 25. The inaugural card will also include junior middleweight Evan Holyfield (11-1, 7 KOs), 25, of Atlanta, who is the son of the heavyweight great Evander Holyfield, against Luis Garcia (13-2-1, 9 KOs), 36, of Richmond, California, in the eight-round co-feature of the six-fight card.
Canadian welterweight contender Cody Crowley (22-0, 9 KOs), 30, who notched a well-deserved majority decision over Abel Ramos in an exciting WBC eliminator in March on the David Benavidez-Caleb Plant Showtime PPV card, went into the fight dealing with the emotion of his father Jim’s suicide last year. As Crowley continues to deal with the heartbreak, he has tried to make something positive come of it as he tries to raise the target goal of $55,000 for Team 55 Let’s Tackle Suicide Awareness. To help raise money for the project he is also involved in a charity golf tournament, dinner and auction taking place Saturday.
Show and tell
Mike Tyson reached the apex of his career when he destroyed Michael Spinks in 91 seconds of their heavyweight championship fight, but Tyson’s path of destruction continued for two more fights. He knocked out Frank Bruno in the fifth round to retain the undisputed title and then came a mandatory defense against Carl “The Truth” Williams, who a few years earlier lost a 15-round decision challenging then-champion Larry Holmes. But Williams was no match for the peak Tyson, who mowed him down in just 93 seconds at the Convention Center (now called Boardwalk Hall) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The fight was on July 21, 1989 — 34 years ago on Friday. Buster Douglas would be up next for Tyson. Here is a program from Tyson-Williams in my collection.
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Photos: Spence: Ryan Hafey/PBC; Ramirez/Mikey Williams
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Not long for the big one Spence Crawford I cannot wait