By Brian Webber: Former trainer Teddy Altas believes that Errol Spence Jr. needs a good, long, long rest before thinking of returning to the ring for a rematch with Terence Crawford.
Atlas feels that Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) absorbed a lot of punishment in his loss to Crawford last July, and it would be a mistake to get back in there with him so quickly after their last contest.
Teddy would like for Spence to rest without doing any sparring in the gym to let himself recover from what he went through in his ninth round knockout loss to Crawford on July 29th.
Obviously, Crawford would prefer to get the Spence rematch over with as soon as possible because he believes, rightly or wrongly, that he’s going to face the Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo winner.
Crawford probably isn’t going to get that fight, but that’s what he believes, so he’s going to want to get the second contest with Errol out of the way as quickly as possible.
Spence has already activated the rematch clause for the fight, so a good chance that the two could meet in December for a second fight. The organizers of the eventual will obviously have some input on when it takes place.
They got to know that it’s better to delay it until next year because the results of the first Crawford-Spence fight still be fresh in the minds of the boxing public, and many of them will be reluctant to purchase the rematch on PPV, especially if it’s priced at the same $84.99 as the first fight.
Paulie Malignaggi: “If you didn’t know better, you’d think Errol Spence’s team hates him, but we do know better. They do love their fighter just like a father loves their son. It’s just that they get caught up in the moment, they get caught up in the emotion of it,” said Malignaggi to ProBox TV about Spence’s team not getting in the way of him taking a rematch with Terence Crawford.
It’s not Spence’s team that made the decision to activate the rematch with Crawford. That was Spence’s idea, as he wants to avenge his loss, and obviously, the big payday he’s going to get fighting Crawford again is a big lure.
Spence isn’t going to make that same kind of money fighting one of the contenders at 154 to rebuild his career.
“That’s what’s happening here. I’m on the same page as you, Teddy. I don’t want to see the match. I don’t think there’s a necessity for the rematch. This is how boxing gets a bad name.
“It gets a good name for making that fight where everyone was waiting for it, and it finally got made where boxing doesn’t make all the fights that it needs to. Now, all of a sudden, you sign a two-fight deal.
“I’m noticing a trend lately where guys sign two-fight deals, even before they fight one time. It used to be that rematches had to be mandated by public demand. Now you see guys sign two-fight deals even before they fight one time.”
Teddy Atlas: “Look, I know there’s good people behind Spence. I know they don’t hate the kid, but really, I think it’s something that needs to be rethought a little bit. Definitely not for a while, even if you got that route, but not for a while.”
It’s unknown how long the rematch clause is good for before it expires. You have to assume that it has an expiration date a year or less. Assuming it’s a year, Spence has until next July before he faces Crawford again.
“Let him [Spence] rest, and not even in the gym. Sparring, I don’t mean just in the fight. Give him the rest that he needs, quite frankly,” said Atlas.
