By Allan Fox Errol Spence Jr says he’s going to be on a “seek & destroy” mission on July 29th to beat “the will” out of Terence Crawford to the point where he won’t want a rematch after he gets through with knocking the living daylights out of him live on Showtime PPV.
Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) says he wants to punish WBO welterweight champion Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) in part because “it’s war,” and that is what happens on the battlefield, but also because of his family.
IBF, WBA & WBC 147-lb champion Spence needs Crawford’s belt to finish what he started in his goal to become undisputed, and from there, he could move up immediately to 154 to go after the titles in that division.
The only thing that will cause Spence to hold back will be if Crawford wants a second helping of what he’s going to be dishing out on July 29th. That remains to be seen.
If Spence beats Crawford the way he did with his last opponent Yordenis Ugas, fracturing his orbital bone and breaking his nose & ribs, it’s going to take Terence at least a year to recover.
Errol likely won’t sit around, waiting for Crawford to finish licking his wounds before he returns to the ring.
Spence already lost a year of his career negotiating with Crawford for this fight, and he’s not going to want to throw another year away waiting for him to recover from the punishment he inflicts in this contest.
Crawford felt he was A-side
“I’m stubborn, but my stubbornness is what got me here. At this point, I was like, ‘I want to fight Terence Crawford. I don’t want to fight anybody else,'” said Errol Spence Jr to All Access: Spence vs. Crawford – Episode 2. “I’m super competitive; he’s super competitive, and I don’t want to lose to him. He don’t want to lose to me.”
Unless Spence-Crawford ends in a draw, which is unlikely, someone is going to lose on July 29th, and it’s going to be interesting to see which of the two.
“I couldn’t think of a better scenario than this. I’m the guy, for sure,” said Spence. “I’m the A-side. I got to be A-side, and that’s why the business side was kind of because, with him, he just didn’t want to believe that I’m the big dog when we talk about ticket sales, when we talk about putting butts in the seats, all that and he didn’t want to believe that.
“He was like, ‘Well, I did this. I won these belts; I did this.’ That’s cool, but try to take that to the bank. I feel like he’s my dancing partner, and I’m his dancing partner,” said Errol.
Crawford felt that his three-division world titles and his pound-for-pound status translated into him being the A-side for the Spence fight, but that’s now how it works. The A-side fighter is the guy that brings in the PPV buys & ticket sales, and that’s Spence.
“We meant for each other. So we got to make it happen. This is one of those legendary fights. This is like Sugar Ray not fighting Tommy Hearns or Tommy Hearns not fighting Marvin Hagler,” said Spence. “So it’s something that basically, for me, I feel like it had to happen.
“If I beat the will out of him, he probably won’t take it,” said Spence about his belief that Crawford won’t take the rematch if he batters the living daylights out of him on July 29th.
This writer disagrees. Crawford will still want the rematch with Errol, even if he’s laid up in sickbay for the next twelve months, dealing broken bones from the first fight.
One could see Craawford hobbling into the ring on on crutch for the rematch. That’s not to say Crawford will win, mind you, but he’s not giving up. He’s to hang in there until the bitter end.
Crawford more athletic than skilled
“When you prepare someone for something of this magnitude if I miss something, something I miss will come out in the fight, and that’ll be smoothing that Crawford can capitalize on,” said trainer Derrick James.
“I think the closer it gets to the fight, the more serious he becomes.”
“He’s been there since day one. I got where I’m at because of his vision.,” said Spence about James.
“Terence is really more athletic than boxing skills,” said James about Crawford. “He’s very athletic, very fast, very quick twitch muscles, and so that’s really what it is; it’s his athleticism.”
That fight with Shawn Porter that Derrick James was watching when he spoke about the athleticism of Crawford was two years ago in 2021, and he’s not the same fighter he was then. Crawford has aged and slowed down.
“He’s a great threat, but you can’t judge the depth of his desire until you get in the ring because if Errol is hitting you and breaking ribs and breaking over the orbital bone and you keep fighting you break your nose, you can’t see that from his [Crawford] record,” said James.
“On paper, he is the most accomplished fighter in boxing, but I think that it comes a point when somebody’s breaking you, how much do you really want it, and that’s what we’ll see. She won’t be dancing on the 29th. Don’t wear your dancing shoes, mama,” Derrick said about Crawford’s mom. “You will not be dancing.”
Spence on seek & destroy mission
“I always see a lot of coaches get the credit that they deserve, but my coaches never get the credit that they deserve, and they brought me from nothing to something from Omaha, Nebraska, to world champion,” said Crawford.
This is a big step up in class for Crawford from the guys he’s been facing, and he might not be ready for a fighter like Spence. When Spence was asked who he thinks is Crawford’s best opponent, he said Yuriorkis Gamboa & Viktor Postol. Those fights happened many years ago, and Crawford hasn’t fought anyone near as good since.
“I’m in shape; we know that. Now it’s about executing the game plan and staying sharp,” said Crawford. “That’s it. I trained too hard to think about losing. Do it across my mind? Yeah, it always crossed my mind. What if? But my mind is so strong that it keeps those negative thoughts out.
“This is one of the biggest fights. It’s the biggest fight of my career to date, and this is one of them fights that will be talked about forever,” said Crawford.
“I’m just getting my body for an all-out war because I don’t know what he’s going to bring to the table,” said Spence. “It could be anything. It’s all about training your body physically and mentally to prepare for war.
“It’s like the greats in basketball, football, boxing, or whatever. They kept focus 100 all the time, and one second you lose focus, that’s the one second you can get caught, or something can happen. Even in life, once you lose focus, anything can happen.
“I work very hard, but I know the harder I work, it’s going to benefit my kids, my mother, and my father. So I know it’s not just me, and that’s one of the things I had to realize again. Once I had the car crash, I realized that it’s not just me. I’m fighting for everybody because
everybody’s sacrificing in their own way.
When it gets hard, I think, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ but then I think, ‘My kids deserve this. I’m going to keep working, I’m going to keep grinding.’
“Come July 29th, I expect him to have nothing but destruction on his mind, and that’s the same thing for me. I have nothing but destruction on my mind. Basically, go out to seek & destroy,” said Spence.
