By Allan Fox: Trainer Freddie Roach is picking Terence Crawford to beat unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr on July 29th.
Roach has been around the game for a long time, and he likes Crawford’s counter-punching and aggressiveness.
He sees those things as leading WBO welterweight champion Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) to victory over IBF, WBA & WBC champ Spence.
Earlier this week, Spence informed his followers on social media that he’s going to go up to junior middleweight after he beats Crawford. He in a caption, ‘After I smoke him, I’m going to move up to 154.’
If this is Errol’s last fight at 147, he’s got some big fights at 154 against some big punching brawlers like Tim Tszyu, Brian Castano, Sebastian Fundora, Brian Castano, and Erickson Lubin.
Although Spence didn’t say if he would move up immediately after his fight with Crawford on July 29th or after the second fight, I think he meant after this fight.
It looks like Errol has had enough of draining down to 147, and it’s taken a lot out of him. With two weeks to go before the fight at the end of the month, Spence looks like Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt.
It’s really taken a lot out of Spence this time in making weight for the Crawford fight, and he’s already skeletal. As big as Spence is, even 154 might not be enough for him because that’s only seven pounds. Spence is 33 now, and he’s outgrown the 147-lb division.
If you saw what Spence looked like making weight for his last fight 15 months ago for Yordenis Ugas, he looked totally skeletal, worse than Devin Haaney, who some feel is essentially a junior middleweight, who drains himself down to 135 to fight smaller competition.
“I have Crawford. I like him; he’s a friend of mine, he’s a good person, and he goes out there with his game plan. He might turn southpaw or righty in the second out, and then he carries through,” said Freddie Roach to Fighthype, picking his friend Terence Crawford to beat Errol Spence Jr.
It’s nice that Roach is showing royalty by picking his friend Crawford to win, but he could lose if Spence isn’t drained.
“I like him a lot. I think he’s one of the best fighters in the world today. I think he’s thoughtful, and he counter-punches really well. His opponent [Spence] is there aggressive, and he’s had a tough life over the last year,” said Roach.
