Crawford: ‘I believe I showed how great I am’

On paper, unified 147-pound champion(WBA/WBC/IBF) Errol Spence Jr. and WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford was a 50-50 fight. That was on paper. The actual fight was not very close.

Crawford(40-0, 31 KOs) dropped Spence(28-1, 22 KOs) three times, once in the second round and twice in the seventh. After an onslaught in the ninth round,  referee Harvey Dock would stop the fight with 2:32 in the round and Crawford would defeat Spence by ninth-round TKO at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas(Showtime PPV) on Saturday night. 

Photo: Ryan Hafey/PBC

At the time of the stoppage, Crawford, who bruised, bloodied, and battered Spence, led 79-70 on all three cards.

With the win, Crawford, 35. became the first undisputed champion in the four-belt era at 147 pounds and became the first male to be undisputed in two weight classes in the four-belt era.

In addition, Crawford has stopped every fighter he’s battled at welterweight.

“It means everything because of who I took the belts from,” Crawford said. “They talked bad about me. They said I wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t beat these welterweights. I just kept my head to the sky and kept praying to God that I would get the opportunity to show the world how great Terence Crawford is. Tonight, I believe I showed how great I am.”

Crawford, who fought mainly as a Southpaw, had too many tools for the 33-year-old Spence. His stiff jab gave Spence a lot of trouble throughout, and it led to the first knockdown in Round 2 after he hit Spence with a powerful right cross that caught Spence off balance and sent him down for the first time in his career.

From there, it was like target practice for Crawford, who, according to CompuBox stats, had a 185 to 96 advantage in punches landed and a 50% connect rate.

“Normally, in camp, we do a flick and jab,” Crawford said. “But we knew that wasn’t going to work with Errol Spence because he’s durable, he’s strong. So we had to practice a strong, firm jab. The jab hit him and stopped him in his tracks.”

Spence added: “He was just better tonight. He was using the jab. My timing was a little bit off. He was just the better man tonight.”

There is a rematch clause, and Spence said he would take the rematch after the fight.

“We gotta do it again,” Spence said. “I’m going to be a lot better. It’ll be a lot closer. It’ll probably be in December and the end of the year. I say we gotta do it again.”

The rematch could happen at 147 pounds again or at 154, and that’s up to Crawford. However, it might be in Spence’s best interest to fight at 154 pounds, and he did say before the fight that this is his last as a welterweight.

Here’s the reality, the rematch probably won’t look much different. Stylistically, Crawford is just too skilled for Spence, and that won’t change in the rematch; however, anything is possible.

Crawford looked special tonight. This was an amazing performance by an all-time great fighter. Credit to him and his team.