P4P king Crawford basks in glory of historic victory over Spence
'Me always having to hear this guy’s name, it’s like a breath of fresh air that I get to breathe because we finally done it. And now it’s done and over with.'
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
LAS VEGAS — Even before Terence Crawford squared off with Errol Spence Jr. many already ranked him as the No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world.
Others weren’t so sure, pointing to a pedestrian resume since his arrival in the welterweight division in 2018 after having previously been the undisputed junior welterweight champion and lightweight champion.
That pre-Spence welterweight resume was not for a lack of Crawford’s willingness to face the best, mind you. Rather Crawford was with Top Rank, which was devoid of quality opponents to match him with. That’s why Crawford made uninteresting WBO title defenses against the likes of Jose Benavidez Jr. and Egidijus Kavaliauskas, both good fighters but hardly near the top of the division. It is why he was matched with the remnants of Amir Khan and Kell Brook, who were long past their best days.
The best welterweight Crawford got his hands on was Shawn Porter, a former two-time titlist, who had already been beaten by Spence two years earlier and retired after Crawford knocked him out.
Spence, meantime, was with PBC, which had most of the best fighters in the division. That meant Spence had the opportunity to unify three belts by beating Porter and Yordenis Ugas and also to face other top names: Danny Garcia, Mikey Garcia and Lamont Peterson.
But when Crawford and Spence finally met in a showdown fans and media had clamored for since Crawford’s arrival at welterweight in 2018 on Saturday night at sold-out T-Mobile Arena in the most significant fight of the year, Crawford proved his point.
He proved that despite that lackluster welterweight resume, he was indeed the best fighter in the world pound-for-pound as he laid waste to Spence.
Crawford took his unbeaten record, his belts and perhaps his best days as a fighter in the one-sided ninth-round demolition that included the only three knockdowns of Spence’s career in the second round and two more in the seventh.
Upgrade to a paid subscription for full access to Spence-Crawford coverage
The glorious victory on the biggest stage made Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), the pride of Omaha, Nebraska, the first male boxer to be an undisputed champion in two divisions in the four-belt era.
It also starkly showed that when Crawford faced his best opponent, he rose to the occasion in historic fashion.
Since the fight, I’ve heard from various respected boxing lifers — some enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame — who expressed this common refrain: the version of Crawford who pummeled Spence would definitely hang with and have a good chance to defeat great welterweights such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Oscar De La Hoya, Pernell Whitaker, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. It is hard to disagree after watching him take apart Spence (28-1, 22 KOs), who had a tremendous resume, had never come close to losing and who has been way high on the pound-for-pound list for years.
About a half hour after rolling though Spence, Crawford arrived at the post-fight news conference. He and Spence embraced and shook hands, and as Spence exited the stage, Crawford, who has never been the most media friendly guy, seemed to enjoy his time in front of us.
“This meant everything to me,” Crawford said. “I want to thank Errol Spence and his team for me and him coming together and getting this fight underway. This is the fight that everyone wanted to see. The whole world was talking about it. We put on a great show.”
It wasn’t really a great show actually. It was, however, an all-time great performance by Crawford, who put on the kind of tour de force reminiscent of other virtuoso performances I have covered, including Bernard Hopkins destroying the favored Felix Trinidad to become the undisputed middleweight champion; Roy Jones dominating John Ruiz in a move up to win a heavyweight title; big underdog Pacquiao moving up two divisions and annihilating De La Hoya and sending him into retirement; Winky Wright turning Trinidad into a human bobblehead doll; and Hopkins humiliating the favored Kelly Pavlik.
Crawford’s legacy-making victory took place just four days after Naoya Inoue, who had vacated the undisputed bantamweight title, moved up turned in a similarly awesome showing in an eighth-round knockout of Stephen Fulton to take his unified junior featherweight title in such an overwhelming victory many proclaimed him No. 1 pound-for-pound before Spence-Crawford had even taken place.
With all due respect to the great four-division champion Inoue, Crawford is No. 1. That’s what I and many others strongly believe. Fulton is good but he was no Spence. Crawford also was all too happy to make his case for No. 1.
“Without a doubt,” Crawford said when asked if he deserved to be recognized at the P4P king. “Like I told everybody once before, the winner out of this fight was gonna be No. 1 pound-for-pound, hands down. You got Errol Spence, who was ranked No. 4 in (in some) pound-for-pound (lists). And you got Terence Crawford; I was ranked No. 1 (on some lists). So, you got two fighters that’s in the top five. How can (the winner) not be No. 1 pound-for-pound?”
When asked about his all-time pound-for-pound ranking, the three-division champion thought for a moment.
“I’m up there,” he said. “I always want to pay homage to the fighters that came before me because without them there’d be no me. Wherever they want to put me, I’m up there. It ain’t my job to put me where I want to be. It’s your job to put me where I belong.
“I’ve been telling each and every one of y’all for years. I get to say I told y’all because I’ve been asking for these fights for years. You all been saying, ‘He’s too small, he’s gonna get this, he’s gonna get broken.’ And each and every time that I step up, I proved you all wrong each time. Write some great stories about Terence Crawford, don’t hate on him, don’t say nothing negative. Just give me my props.”
Consider the props given because he sure made it look easy against Spence.
“We trained so hard in training camp that it may look easy in the ring but these fights is never easy,” Crawford said. “These fights are extremely hard because we put our body through so much in training camp and I worked my ass to get to where I’m at today. I even did things that was different (to prepare) for this fight. We did a pre-camp. Came out to Vegas, stayed for a month. I’ve been working for a long time for just this one moment, so it’s never easy.”
And it wasn’t long after the fight began that he felt in total control. After little happened in an opening round that Spence won on two scorecards, it was all Crawford.
“The first round I felt as if I had the speed and power (advantage),” Crawford said. “I felt his power and I felt as if I was the stronger fighter.”
Spence has the contractual right to an immediate rematch (as would Crawford had he lost). Spence indicated he would invoke that right but as the winner Crawford has the right to determine the division, either welterweight or junior middleweight, where Spence wants it to take place given his issues making 147 pounds.
Crawford, who has knocked out all eight of his welterweight opponents, has stopped 11 foes in a row overall and is 19-0 in 19 consecutive world title fights covering three divisions, is open to facing him in a rematch at 154.
“It definitely don’t have to be at ’47,” Crawford said. “I’m in a hurt business. (Making) ’47 was kinda hard for me, too. I was already talking about moving up in weight and challenging (undisputed champion Jermell) Charlo. So, ’54 wouldn’t be out of reach of anything.”
What might be out of reach is Spence being able to do enough to win after seeing how badly he was outclassed the other night.
If they fight a second time, or even if it turns out to be just once, Crawford is happy the long-awaited fight finally happened after taking so many arrows over the years from folks who blamed him for it not happening sooner or claiming that he was looking to avoid Spence, which I never believed for one moment.
The win over Spence, Crawford said, will never replace his No. 1 boxing moment of going to Scotland in 2014 and outpointing WBO lightweight titlist Ricky Burns to win his first world title. But the Spence victory is also special.
“I don’t think there’s ever gonna be a moment to make me feel the way I felt when I was in Scotland that day because that was my whole dream,” Crawford said. “I was filled with so much excitement to go all the way over to Scotland and to come back a world champion, something that I dreamed of all my life as a kid. My dreams came true that one night.
“This (win) is definitely up there because this is a fight that’s been talked about for many years. This is a fight that when I walked in the store, everybody (was) asking me, ‘When you fighting Spence? When you fighting Spence?’”
Even his son got in on the act.
“‘Dad, this dude said you scared of Spence,’” Crawford said, recounting a conversation with his son. “So me always having to hear this guy’s name, it’s like a breath of fresh air that I get to breathe because we finally done it. And now it’s done and over with.”
Maybe not if there is a rematch, but beyond that Crawford could defend against the welterweight young guns, including mandatory challengers Eimantas Stanionis, Jaron “Boots” Ennis or Alexis Rocha. He could go to junior middleweight and seek a title fight once Charlo’s belts inevitably splinter in the coming months as Charlo prepares to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on Sept. 30.
Perhaps there’s a middleweight fight down the road for Crawford, who deservedly was basking in his victory but entirely unsure what the future holds other than his feeling of happiness for his achievement and surely for the big bank deposit coming his way.
“I don’t know; I don’t know,” Crawford said when asked about his next move. “In two months I’ll be 36 years old. I’ve been boxing since I was 7 years old. I’ve been doing sports all my life, since I was 7. I don’t know. I got to sit down with my team and talk about the future.”
It’s probably going to be very bright whatever Crawford decides to do.
This story is for paid subscribers to Fight Freaks Unite. I very much appreciate your support of this newsletter!
Give me your thoughts in the comments section
Photo: Esther Lin/Showtime
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danrafael1/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanRafael1
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanRafaelBoxing
