By Allan Fox: Terence Crawford posted a warning photo on Instagram today, letting IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr what’s in store for him when they battle on July 29th for their undisputed 147-lb championship on Showtime PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The news that Spence and Crawford had agreed to the fight was revealed yesterday by Mike Coppinger, and there’s already a huge amount of interest.
Hopefully, neither fighter gets injured during training camp. Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) has been through a lot in the last four years, starting with a car crash in 2019, torn retina in 2021, and then another car crash in 2022.
With Crawford being 36, you don’t know whether he’ll make it through camp without getting hurt.
Is Spence healthy?
“My initial thought was Spence. I was always Spence. I think Spence is too big and too strong, but the more time Crawford was campaigning at welterweight and growing into the weight class, he’s a full-fledged welter now. I don’t think there’s any difference in terms of that,” said Chris Algieri to Inside Boxing Live.
“My biggest question now is Spence’s health. I probably still stick with Spence if he’s healthy, but I don’t know if he is. We talk about the car accidents and the lingering effects of those. Eye retina detachment are a big, big deal.
“Both of those car accidents. I don’t know how bad the second one was. The first one was really bad. He [Spence] came back against [Danny] Garcia and looked fantastic in that fight [in December 2020], so maybe that one wasn’t that big of a deal, but you never know,” said Algieri.
Crawford has a lot of tricks
“I am leaning towards Crawford because I think he has a few more tricks up his sleeves, a few more facets to his game, a little more dynamic, better one-punch power,” said Dan Canobbio. “He’s been more active than Errol Spence.
“Those injuries aren’t just nicks. They’re not just scratches and bumps. These are serious injuries, but Spence has shown to have this freakish pain tolerance and will to fight through that.”
“When I fought him, I called him ‘The Terminator’ because the guy has got a titanium exoskeleton,” said Algieri. “He’s so physically strong, and that’s one of the reasons why I’ve leaned towards him.”
“I took a selfie with him and put my arm around his shoulder and thought, ‘Holy crap, this guy is in shape,'” said Canobbio about Spence. “He knew this fight is coming. ”
“That was a month ago,” said Algieri.
“So lean and ripped. You can tell up anymore between camps,” said Canobbio. “What do you think business-wise? It doesn’t have the same appeal that it would have had in 2019 or 2020. I still think it’s a big fight. I think it’s the second biggest fight that can be made outside of Ryan-Tank, which already happened.
Spence-Crawford will bring in big PPV numbers
“This was a big point of contention of getting this fight made. Crawford had this over-sensed value of what he thought the fight was going to do. I think it does over 500,000 [PPV buys]. I think it’ll do a good gate. I think there will be a lot of interest in this one.
“I truly believe that in big fights, they rise up when other big fights are being made. It’s like a snowball effect,” said Canobbio.
“I agree. I think business-wise, it’s going to make a lot of sense; it’s going to make a lot of money,” said Algieri. “It’s curious to me the fights so soon. I was counting my calendar. It’s ten weeks away-ish.
“For marketing. In terms of them knowing, sure. A month ago, Spence’s back felt like a coiled piece of iron. Marketing-wise, in terms of building a mega-fight to where you’re going to get those big numbers, that’s not a ton of time for a fight of this magnitude.
“So if they really ramp it up right away. It’s already out over everywhere. I’m curious to see. I still think it’s going to do good numbers either way, but there’s going to be a big marketing push of course.
“We’re going to be talking about it every week from now until then, like everybody else. I think the fights too big. The match-up is too good,” said Algieri about the Spence vs. Crawford fight.