By Chris Williams: Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford met for their kickoff press conference today for their July 29th fight on Showtime PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
What was noticeable besides the superior poise and naturalness of IBF, WBA & WBC welterweight champion Spence was how much bigger he looked than WBO champ Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) when the two stood for their face-off.
Spence resembled junior middleweight and would have been more at home standing face-to-face with undisputed 154-lb champion Jermell Charlo than the thinner Crawford, who looked more like a rehydrated 140-lb division fighter.
Crawford will have problems if he can’t stay on his bike for twelve rounds because he’s NOT big enough, strong enough, or sturdy enough to stand in the pocket with the more solidly built and rugged Spence (28-0, 22 KOs).
In this fight, Terence is the equivalent of a speedy Ferrari being asked to go off-road on rough terrain he’s not built for, going up against a jeep [Spence] better suited for the dusty backroads.
It will be interesting to see if the 36-year-old Crawford has the wheels to motor around the ring for the entire 12-round fight because he won’t last long if he stands his ground to fight to the bitter finish against Spence.
Terence Crawford: “We’ll give y’all a gift with the presence of myself and Errol on July 29th. So y’all can witness greatness. There will be greatness on July 29th that you guys will witness, and how do we measure greatness? To us and you guys, we measure greatness by eras.
“We had the Sugar Ray Robinson era, we had the era of the Marvin Hagler the Tommy Hearns, and you had the Floyd Mayweather and his era. But on July 29th, I’m going to show each and every one of y’all why this era is the Terence Crawford era.
“This guy calls himself the big fish, right? But what do you do when the fish get taken out of the water? You suffocate him. Stop.”
You can argue that Crawford has been entirely untested at 147 and 140. Top Rank matched Crawford like he was fine china dinnerware, keeping him well-protected with their soft match-making until he left their company to fight fringe contender David Avanesyan for BLK, who was more of the same type of opposition that Terence had been fighting.
The last fight where he was tested came nine years ago against Yuriorkis Gamboa at lightweight in 2014. Even in that fight, Crawford was fighting a faded Gamboa, who was at his best when he fought at featherweight.
Crawford’s opposition at 147 & 140
David Avanesyan
Shawn Porter
Kell Brook
Egidijus Kavaliauskas
Amir Khan
Jose Benavidez Jr
Jeff Horn
Julius Indongo
Felix Diaz Jr
John Molina Jr
Viktor Postol
Hanky Lundy
Dierry Jean
Thomas Dulorme