By Allan Fox: Chris Algieri thinks that Terence Crawford must be able to hurt Errol Spence Jr all night for him to have a shot at winning tonight’s contest.
The former WBO light welterweight champion Algieri says Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) will continually walk Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) down and overwhelm him with punches if he’s not able to hurt him in their fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Crawford can’t match Spence’s high-punch output
While fans & the media rave about Crawford’s skills, they fail to acknowledge that he’s incapable of throwing a lot of punches to match the high-volume output of Spence. Why? Because Crawford is a counter-puncher just like Canelo Alvarez, another fighter with a low output, he won’t be able to change that at age 36 for this fight.
Algieri warns that Crawford is going to need to stay on the outside and move all night long to keep Spence off of him because if h stops, even for an instant, he’s going to be snowed under by the heavy shots from Errol.
Crawford’s skills don’t translate to him having a good chin because he doesn’t. He was hurt in his last fight by David Avanesyan, dropped by WIFI password Egidijus Kavaliauskas and staggered badly by Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Crawford must stay on the outside
“He’s got to be smart and fight from the outside,” said Chris Algieri to Fighthype when asked what Terence Crawford must do against Errol Spence Jr tonight. “Spence set such a torrid pace and has such a good engine. He lets his hands go and hits whatever he can touch.
“So Crawford must really be on his defense, his movement, his counters, staying long on the outside because if you stop and stand still, you don’t want to catch & shoot with Errol because he hits too hard. He hits you on the elbows.”
If you saw how wooden legs Crawford had in his last fight against Avanesyan, it’s dream stuff to think that he’s going to be able to move around like gazelle against Spence.
Crawford looked like a washed-up track star in that fight, no longer able to run the 100-meter dash in 9.58 seconds, and resigned to coaching.
“He doesn’t need to land scoring blows,” said Algieri about Spence. “He’ll land on your arms, your shoulders. So not letting him beat on him like that is going to be really important. I think both of them fight with their egos at times. Errol
“Errol chose to ego-fight Shawn Porter because he told him, ‘I have more dog in me than you.’ Errol basically showed him that he didn’t. People were saying that Errol couldn’t box, and when he fought Mikey Garcia, he went out and boxed. So, I think a lot of the ego plays a part with Errol as well.
“In Crawford’s fights, you can read his emotions because he’s not really hiding them. That could be a downfall for him as well. That’s what kind of fight this is. It’s a great, evenly-matched fight.
“Both guys possess the ability to beat the other man, and that’s why everyone is so intrigued. The thing about Errol is, he has such a good chin. He’s so durable. I’ve been going back and forth about who is going to win the fight.
Terence in trouble if he can’t hurt Spence
“If Crawford can’t hurt Errol, he can’t win because if you can’t keep him [Spence] off of you, he’s just going to let his hands go. He’s one of the busiest world champions in the world in terms of punch output and volume.
“For a guy that big that cuts that much weight to have that kind of engine, it’s amazing. If Crawford can hurt him, he’s a great finisher, too; Crawford is. If he can hurt him, that’s going to be really important for him to get some respect from Errol.
“I call him [Spence] the ‘Terminator’ because once he determines you can’t hurt him, he just walks through everything, walks you down to try and beat you up.
“I’m 50-50. I was very bullish about Errol for many years, but with this match-up now, the way that Crawford has grown into welterweight. I was really big on Crawford last week,” said Algieri.
