By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford feels he only needed a fight with Errol Spence Jr to get the biggest payday of his career, but he wasn’t needed for his legacy.
If Crawford didn’t need a fight with Spence, he wouldn’t have been hounding him all these years, pushing for a fight. Errol is someone that Crawford has wanted to fight since 2018, and clearly, it’s essential that he blessed him with this opportunity.
Without Spence, Crawford is left with his paper-thin resume, created with the help of the best matchmakers in the business at Top Rank.
IBF, WBA & WBC welterweight champion Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) will look to capture the last title needed for his collection when he faces WBO champ Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) on July 29th on Showtime PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Did Crawford need Spence?
“Yes, Errol is my biggest dance partner, but career-wise and legacy-wise, I didn’t need Errol,” said Terence Crawford during today’s virtual press conference.
Some would argue that Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) does need Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) more than he lets on because although he glided through three weight divisions, capturing titles along the way, he never beat anyone of substance to create a true legacy & Hall of Fame career.
Crawford’s title wins:
- Jeff Horn – 147
- Julius Indongo – 140
- Viktor Postol – 140
- Thomas Dulorme – 140
- Ricky Burns – 135
This is a terribly weak bunch of fighters that Crawford captured his world titles against, and it’s very Adrien Broner-esque with the soft opponents he fought to win those titles.
We saw Broner capture four-division world titles during his career against equally mediocre opposition as Terence.
Spence was needed by Crawford a lot more than he thinks because if he were to retire now or if his career were to go downhill from this juncture on, there’s nothing on his resume that suggests that he’s achieved anything, other than to be another version of Broner.
Spence to do what he always does
Brian Custer: “In your opinion, this fight is going to show what about Errol Spence Jr?”
Errol Spence: “It’s going to show what I’ve been showing. I’ve been putting dudes out, touching dudes up. I don’t have a boring style. I have a fundamentally set style.
“It’s going to show my mindset and all my attributes inside the ring; it’s going to show.”
If Spence does what he always does, Crawford is in for a real beat down on July 29th. Can Crawford prevent that from happening? We haven’t seen Crawford’s chin consistently tested due to his weak opposition.
We do know that he was dropped by Egidijus Kavaliauskas, and his face was swelled up by the washed Kell Brook.
Crawford looked plenty worried in those fights before knocking out those guys, and he was fortunate to get a stoppage because he might not have lasted much longer if those matches had continued to the bitter end.
Brian: “How much energy is in this camp because you’ve got one of the biggest fights on this planet coming up.”
Spence: “We all push each other indirectly. You’re naturally going to try and work a little bit harder. You’re trying to work harder because another top fighter is watching you, trying to see how you work. You don’t want to be lazy or a guy that don’t train hard.”
Brian: “Bud was talking about at the press conference, saying, ‘I’ve knocked out everybody I’ve faced at welterweight.’ I remember you interjecting when he was making his point. You said, ‘You haven’t fought anybody.’
“You look at your resume. You’ve fought a number of guys in their prime. How much does that matter when you come into a fight such as this when you’ve been through something and walked through the fire, so to speak? How much has that prepared you for something like this?
Spence: “It definitely matters because you fought the guys at the top when they had something to lose. Shawn Porter had the WBC belt to lose, and Kell Brook had the IBF belt to lose. You fought the guys when they had something to lose, and that made them fight a little bit harder.
“They say that people that win world titles, they get better after they win a world title. They get more confidence, and they train more harder because they have something to lose. I beat them at their best. If they weren’t at their best, they’d probably top-down from their best.
“I feel like the timing is everything. That’s why I say Top Rank has the best matchmakers in boxing because he [Crawford] fought them when they wasn’t good. Kell Brook was at 154 for two or three years, and then he sucked down to 147. It was hard for him.
“It’s things like that where circumstances that helped him beat those guys. When I beat them, they were at their best and at their peak. Still, when we get in the ring, it’s going to be about our abilities and what we can do, how you dictate the pace and how you fight, and who establishes what. So it’s all about focus.
“In this fight, he has a lot of ability, and I have a lot of ability. Regardless of who he fought and who I fought, when we’re in the ring, all that goes out the window.”
