By Chris Williams: Deontay Wilder was ringside for the fight and says Errol Spence Jr looked weight drained tonight in his 9th round TKO loss to Terence Crawford at the T-Mobile Arena in Laa Vegas. Spence looked like he’d been zombified and never stood a chance after making weight on Friday.
Wilder saw the telltale signs of a weight-drained fight in looking at how slow, weak & lethargic IBF WBA & WBC welterweight champion Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) appeared during the bout tonight.
“It seemed like Errol was a little drained, and he couldn’t really do what he needed to do. Bud definitely took advantage. I really think Errol over-dehydrated himself; you could see it in his skin and in his eyes,” said Deontay Wilder to Fighthype, discussing Errol Spence Jr’s 9th round TKO loss to Terence Crawford tonight.
So there it is. Wilder is calling it as he sees it, and that’s precisely how Chris Williams saw it. Spence was weight drained and it didn’t belong in the ring.
It was immediately clear before the fight that something wasn’t right with Spence because he looked like a zombie from the movie ‘The Night of the Living Dead’ in the dressing room.
His skin looked ashen and badly pale. The way has talking; he sounded like he was still worn out from the order of making weight.
It was a wicked combination of things that Spence had going against him going into his fight, and they were as follows:
- Inactivity of 15 months
- Weight drained
- No tune-up
- Injuries
Any one of those things would have been enough to cause any fighter problems, but all of them in total were like an evil witches’ brew.
How do you expect Spence to win if he’s handicapped from inactivity, weight drain, injuries, no tune-up, and fighting a defensive guy?
Spence should have put his foot down, insisting that the Crawford fight take place at 154 or, ideally, at 160, but he showed his class by agreeing to fight at 147, even though he’d outgrown that division as far back as 2016.
If Spence is going to take the rematch with Crawford, he must insist that it take place at 154 or 160 because he’s clearly outgrown the 147-lb division.
Even moving up to 154 might not be enough for Spence because he looks like he needs to be fighting at 160 or maybe even 168. 154 isn’t enough. He needs to move up to 160 at the minimum.
Also, that division is better anyway because there are more high-quality fighters than at 154. Spence can extend his career by going up to 160.
