By Allan Fox: Errol Spence Jr was less than complimentary of his next opponent Terence Crawford today, saying he fought a lot of guys that were washed by the time he met up with them.
Spence & Crawford will meet in the undisputed 147-lb championship on July 29th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) says that when Crawford fought Kell Brook, Amir Khan & Shawn Porter, they were a shell of their former selves, which made things easier.
There’s nothing wrong with Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) building his record on faded guys because a lot of fighters do it, and it’s their promoters that pick out the opposition.
With that being said, it’s difficult to gauge how good Crawford is because his best wins came against fighters that were pretty much shot to bits and nothing like the waay they looked in the zenith of their careers.
Spence didn’t go down the whole list, but Crawford also fought these guys when they were clearly on the downside of their careers:
– Yuriorkis Gamboa
– Ricky Burns
– Ray Beltran
– Jose Benavidez Jr
– Briedis Prescott
– Thomas Dulorme
– David Avanesyan
Spence rates his experience as key
“No, not at all. I feel like this fight can’t define my entire career because of who I’ve been and what I’ve done. I don’t feel like this fight can define me when I’ve gone into someone’s hometown [Kell Brook] in my first world title fight and beaten them,” said Errol Spence Jr to PBC Podcast today when asked if he felt pressure on him for his bout with Terence Crawford.
It doesn’t have to be the end of the world if Spence loses to Crawford. There will be a rematch, and the loser of this fight can try and avenge their loss later this year.
“I think my experience will be a factor just with the high-level big fights that I’ve been in and the magnitude of the fights that I’ve been in, like Mikey Garcia. From a talent perspective, I’d say I’ve been in a lot. I fought Shawn Porter [in 2019], who was way better than the one he fought [in 2021], and even with Kell Brook too.
“A lot of the people he fought were a shell of themselves. Even Amir Khan’s coach [Virgil Hunter] said he wasn’t the same after he fought Canelo [and was viciously knocked out].
“So, he [Crawford] fought a shell of Amir Khan too. I learned I had good composure, and I do well under pressure,” said Spence when asked what he learned from his sparring with Floyd Mayweather Jr many years ago. “When you spar Floyd, there are 30 people around the ring, and they’re hitting on the mats, acting crazy, saying ‘Doghouse this, doghouse that.’
“That didn’t scare me. It really got me more pumped up than anything. It really motivated me,” said Spence.
Crawford has been lucky with the timing of his fights against Khan, Brook, Gamboa, Porter, Dulorme, Postol, Indongo, Horn, and Avanesyan. If he’ fought them during their prime, they would put a lot of mileage on him in the form of wear & tear.
Errol ready for anything
“It won’t disappoint the fans whatsoever, this fight. My style, and his style, we both mesh with each other,” said Spence. “I envision a lot of different scenarios. In every fight I ever fought, I envisioned a hundred different scenarios.
“I think it’s going to be an old-school fight because we both have an old-school mentality. I’m going to put on a great performance, and I hope he comes in and puts on a great performance too.”
Will Spence-Crawford be a war like Errol thinks? It might not. Crawford uses movement when fighting guys with power. He never stands in front of them and trades shot for shot, and it’s unrealistic to believe he’ll start doing this against Spence.
“It makes me more focused that people think I’m going to get washed,” said Spence. “I always train hard, but it makes me a lot more focused. It don’t matter. I’m going to fight how I fight any old way,” said Spence when asked if it matters that Crawford is smaller.
“It wouldn’t matter if he’s smaller or bigger. The only thing that matters is if he can take what I dish out and can I take what he dish out,” said Spence.
