By Brian Webber: Errol Spence Jr. says all he needs to do is beat up Terence Crawford on Saturday night to prevent a rematch from happening.
It would obviously need to be such a bad beating that IBF, WBA & WBC welterweight champion Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) hands down to Crawford that he would see the futility of using the rematch clause to force a second fight.
Terence was supposed to be helping Spence promote their fight today, but he seemed more interested in arguing with people in the audience than in talking about their contest.
In the end, it was left up to Spence to do all the work promoting the fight while Crawford sulked and stewed about being taunted by the crowd.
Spence saw weakness in WBO champion Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) today when he lost his temper during two instances during the final press conference, arguing with him and the audience.
Hopefully, on Saturday, Crawford can keep it together mentally inside the ring because he could find himself getting battered from pillar to post for the first time in his career, and you don’t know how he’ll react to that.
Crawford has always been the type of person that was quick to anger, but the problem has been more noticeable as he’s hit his mid-30s.
Today, Crawford blew his stack twice, and there was a moment when it looked like he was about to go postal and jump into the crowd to start doing damage. Terence’s eyes had a crazy look to them, like he was ready to go to war, but not with Spence.
Spence ready to beat up Crawford
“It was very emotional. Tempers were definitely flaring up between camps, and everybody is hyped for this,” said Errol Spence Jr to Fighthype about his reaction to today’s final press conference with Terrence Crawford.
“I just got to beat his a**. That’ll definitely prevent a rematch,” said Spence.
Will Crawford choose not to use the rematch clause if he loses? It’s difficult to imagine him not forcing a rematch, if for no other reason to get the big payday for the second fight.
The money Crawford can make in thee rematch will be huge, so he’d be crazy not to fight Spence again unless he suffered an eye injury like Errol’ss last opponent Yordenis Ugas.
“That’s what you want. Everybody is super emotional because you’re two days away from the biggest event in boxing in the last 20 years. I’m hyped up and ready to go. My coach is ready to go. His coach is ready to go. He’s ready to go.
“It’s definitely going to be fireworks. I don’t know if it’s going to be two-sided, but on my side, it’ll definitely be fireworks. Put your money on Terence, then. Put your house on Terence if you think I’m going to lose the fight.
“That’s just my demeanor. I’m not with all the talking and yelling, saying different types of. If someone pops off, then I’m going to react, but I’m not one of those guys that just talk, and then something happens, and I don’t do nothing. I stay cool, calm & collected because nothing is going to happen anyway.
“People just yelling at each other. Yeah, he was going too much, but he’s emotional,” said Spence about Crawford arguing with people in the crowd. “So, that’s why I feel like I got him too in that mental aspect because his people were saying stuff to me, and I didn’t turn around.
“When they said something to me, I just looked at them and smiled. That’s what comes with the territory. I don’t care,” said Errol when asked who would walk first or second in the coin toss.
