By Craig Daly: Tim Bradley has made an urgent plea to former unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr to have his health evaluated and not to fight Terence Crawford again this year to avoid taking further punishment to the head like he sustained last Saturday night in his ninth round TKO loss.
(Photo credit: Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions)
Provided Spence passes the health evaluation, Bradley wants him to take one of these two steps:
1. Take a couple of tune-ups before fighting Crawford again
2. Speak to family to discuss possible retirement
Errol isn’t the type that would quit after a poor performance, especially given how weight-drained he looked and with the reports of his making a long, grueling five-mile hill run on the steep Mount Charleston, Nevada, the week before the fight.
Spence basically ran a marathon a week before fighting Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), which in hindsight, was an insane thing to do, as he wore his legs down and took his power. Running long distances uphill in the sun will sap a fighter’s strength if they’re not given enough time to recover.
Errol needs tune-ups
“Spence, good luck moving forward, B. You made a lot of money in your career. I know you don’t want to go out like this, bro,” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype, sending a message to Errrol Spence Jr, warning him not to fight Terence Crawford again this year.
“I get it. You don’t want to go out like this. I understand, but you need to evaluate your health. You need to evaluate your health. You need to evaluate your getting back in the ring and the risk of coming along with that, especially with a fighter of Crawford’s nature.
“Maybe you need to have a couple of fights, man, have a couple of fights. Bro, you didn’t have a fight for a whole year, and you got in the ring with Crawford. Come on, man. You’re killing me. Come on, Al [Haymon]. You’re better than this, man. A whole year off. Crawford fought in December. You know he was coming in sharp,” said Bradley.
Spence needs to move up to 154 or 160 and test the waters against a couple of fringe contenders before looking at facing Crawford again.
Good options for Spence’s two tune-ups:
- Sebastian Fundora
- Erickson Lubin
- Erislandy Lara
- Janibek Alimkhanuly
- Austin Williams
- Carlos Adames
- Liam Williams
- Jesus Ramos
- Brian Mendoza
- Tim Tszyu
- Israil Madrimov
“You ain’t fought since Ugas. That’s been a long time, and he [Spence] got in the ring. So look, if I was Spence, this is what I would do. I would take some time off and reevaluate if I want to continue to do this,” said Bradley.
Should Spence retire?
“I’m not telling him to retire, but I’m just saying. After what I just witnessed Saturday night, you got some questions, bro, to ask yourself, and you guys, you got some talking to do with your family because if I’m your kid, if I’m your son and your daughter watching this, I’m like, ‘Daddy, no point, Dad. We got everything we need,” said Bradley.
It sounds like Bradley is hinting awfully bad for Spence to retire off of that one bad performance against Crawford, and that would be foolish to do, given that he was weight drained.
“‘You’re a great fighter, Dad. You have been a Hall of Fame someday, Dad. Why keep taking this punishment, pops? There’s no point, pops. You ain’t got nothing to prove. You ain’t got nothing to prove. Hey, Crawford was just better that night. That’s it. Let’s leave it at that. You don’t have to operate the rematch. Don’t do it,'” said Bradley.
If Spence does retire, Crawford will need to fight some of the top guys at 154 while waiting to see what Jermell Charlo does after his September 30th contest against Canelo Alvarez.
