By Dan Ambrose: Roy Jones Jr. says Errol Spence Jr. refused to shake his hand after he predicted that Terence Crawford would beat him last weekend.
Jones says Spence should have asked him what he could do to beat Crawford because he would have told him, but he never did.
As things turned out, Roy’s prediction was correct, with Crawford defeating Spence by a ninth round TKO and dropping him three times in a fight that was never competitive for an instant.
Jones Jr. says he picked Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) to win because he’s capable of doing more things inside the ring, and he felt that the former unified welterweight champion Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) could only fight one way. In other words, Spence is one-dimensional.
Potential factors affecting Spence’s performance:
- Inactivity
- Car crash
- Weight drain
- Ring deterioration
- Age
- Not living the life
Roy also feels that Spence isn’t the same fighter since being thrown from his Ferrari at over 100 miles per hour in a crash in 2019 in Dallas.
In the aftermath of that crash, Spence fought twice and didn’t look sharp in absorbing a lot of punishment in winds over Yordenis Ugas and Danny Garcia.
Crawford was too technically inclined
“What I saw last Saturday was a guy too technically inclined to be matched against a guy that is used to fighting one way,” said Roy Jones Jr. to K.O. Artist Sports about Errol Spence Jr. with his loss to Terence Crawford.
Could Spence have overcome Crawford’s technical superiority if he were stronger & fresher? Some people believe so.
“I don’t hate nobody. I love all fighters, but if I see a guy that can change the fight by fighting that way, that way and that way, then he’s going to have my approval right away, like most people, right?” said Jones.
“But if I see him fight a guy that only fights this way, and he can take the punch, this dude is in trouble. He is fighting a guy that was bigger. Errol was bigger. My only question was can Terence take Errol’s punch?
“I figured he probably could. Errol hit him with a good shot early, and Terence didn’t even budge. But Terence dropped Errol with a jab. Fight over. Errol did hit with a better shot than I thought he would, but it didn’t change the fight,” said Roy Jr.
Errol didn’t land enough of his shots early on to test Crawford’s chin, as he was swinging wildly and getting countered. Later in the fight, Spence took power off his shots to try, and land, and that didn’t help.
Spence not the same since car crash
“I feel like Errol isn’t as equipped as he was earlier in his career after getting thrown from his car over 100 miles per hour; it’s got to take something out of you. I don’t care what nobody says,” said Jones Jr.
“It’s not taking nothing away from Bud. It’s not making an excuse for Errol. He wasn’t bad, and he kept coming, but your body can’t be the same after being thrown out of a car in excess of 100 miles per hour.
“I got flak before because I said it before. I watched this dude [Bud] grow up on HBO. I know what he can do. I ain’t never seen this dude do what I’ve seen this dude do.
“I saw Errol in Dallas. ‘Nah, I’m not going to shake your hand.’ ‘Okay, cool.’ Somebody said, ‘You used to be his favorite fighter, but when you said Bud could beat him, he didn’t like that.’ I understand that, but the factor of the matter is you should have asked me why do I think Bud can beat you.
“What can you do to maybe bring you closer? I would have told you because that’s just who I am. I watched Bud grow up on HBO. I know what he can do. All the fights that Errol had, Errol was expected to win.
“Crawford’s first fight HBO, he fought Briedis Prescott, who had just knocked out Amir Khan. He was not supposed to beat Prescott,” said Jones.
For the record, Briedis Prescott had lost two out of his last four fights going into his match against Crawford in 2013. No one was expecting Prescott to win that fight, aside from fans unfamiliar with Crawford.
