By Dan Ambrose: Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman says Errol Spence Jr is facing an athletic, mobile type fighter in Terence Crawford that he’s not fought before, and he questions whether his basic fighting style will able to defeat this kind of guy.
Lumping himself in the same breath as WBO welterweight champion Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs), former WBA/WBC 147-lb champ Thurman feels that Spence’s attributes can only be stacked so high.
Keith points out that Crawford did a better job of beating Shawn Porter than Spence (28-0, 22 KOs), and he sees that as a sign that he’s a better fighter. He also praises Crawford’s ability to switch hit and sees that as another thing that gives him an advantage in this fight.
Listening to Thurman talk, he comes across as still bitter about Spence not throwing him a bone when he was down & out and needy with his career stalled to a complete stop due to his malaise from 2017 to 2023.
Thurman wanted Spence to give him a title shot against him, forgetting that he’d given Errol the cold shoulder when he held the WBA & WBC titles in 2017.
With the praise that Thurman gives Crawford, it almost sounds like his goal in smothering him with compliments is in hopes that he’ll give him a payday if he’s victorious over Spence.
At this point, Thurman’s chances of getting a fight with Spence are zero because he’s not going to help jump-start his career.
Spence hasn’t fought an athletic boxer
“We want to see what they bring to the table, and Crawford is just one of those special individuals, one of those special kind of fighters where he dominated the 140 division,” said Keith Thurman to Fighthype, previewing Errol Spence Jr vs. Terence Crawford fight.
“He’s been holding his own at 147, although it took him a while to get some great names under his belt. He did fight Shawn on the back end of Shawn Porter’s career, but Thurman fought Shawn and didn’t stop him. Spence fought Shawn and didn’t stop him.
“Terence Crawford stopped Shawn Porter. You get some cool points on this side, and you get a five-star rating. What else? He’s [Crawford] a light guy; he brings speed, he brings agility, something that I believe Spence has never seen. I always said Spence has not seen an athletic boxer like Crawford or Thurman, period.”
What Thurman is failing to discuss here is that Shawn Porter was a washed-up shell by the time he fought Crawford in 2021. Thurman conveniently leaves out the cold reality of Porter being totally over-the-hill when Crawford fought him, and that fight was arguably a cash-out.
Shawn had already stopped fighting quality opposition after his beat down against Spence. He’d only fought once after that, beating fringe contender Sebastian Formella.
Porter looked like he was no longer firing on eight cylinders after Spence beat the stuffing out of him in their 12-round fight in 2019.
It’s fair to say that the version that Crawford fought Porter was only 50% of the one Spence had beaten two years earlier. Timing is everything in boxing.
If you fought a guy that had the living daylights hammered out of them, like with Porter, you’re going to have a much easier time than if you fought them when they were in the zenith.
Errol’s attributes are limited
“It’s not ‘can he beat these guys?’ He’s never seen them. So once again, the boys athletic, he’s a switch hitter, lefty-righty, and he can do what he wants when he wants,” Thurman continued with his effusive praise of the untested Crawford.
“I grew up with Crawford. We were at the same national tournaments, and I know him and Spence are both elite amateur pedigree, but when you’re stacking the chips, Spence has that elite amateur pedigree, solid fundamental boxer, very fundamentally sound, and sometimes that’s all it takes to win. Sometimes it ain’t going to be so flashy, and that’s the debate here.
“Can a solid fighter like Spence, who when you talk about him, there’s not a lot to be said. He was an Olympian; he’s dominated the welterweight division, he has great defense, a fantastic jab, and can work the body well. But when you stack these attributes, they only reach so high,” said Thurman.
This is Thurman’s way of saying that Spence is a limited fighter with basic skills and not the same as what Crawford has shown. It’s great for a fighter to have excellent skills, but when they’ve faced B-level opposition exclusively their entire careers, it takes away from it. Crawford has a resume like former super middleweight champion Sven Ottke, a German fighter that compiled a 34-0, 6 record without ever fighting anybody.
“As you continue to talk about Crawford, it seems like he has more, but like I said, the smartest in the world have some of the simplest solutions to a complex problem. Is Errol Spence that?
“Is he going to make E = MC squared? Is he going to give us a solid performance of fundamental boxing, a simple formula to outclass and outperform a dynamic complex fighter like Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford?
The truth is, I don’t know.
“Truth is, that’s why it’s a show, that’s why it’s a fight, that’s why I’m going to be there. That’s why you should go, and if you don’t go, then you better know to buy the pay-per-view, son.
Now, we have four world titles in contention between two men. That makes the welterweight division move in a certain way. That’s not going to last forever. There are so many great fights. Luckily I have a name, regardless if there’s a belt or not belt.
“There’s a lot of people that love to support me. I’m grateful for all the support that I’ve gotten throughout all of my career. I know I lost some of the fights back there. They didn’t like the inactivity, but I know deep down, you still love me. You’re just mad at me, but I know you still love me.
“All I got to do is get up in there and get back to work and sure enough, you’ll remember why you were in my corner once upon a time,” said Thurman.
