Spence vs. Crawford: Big Fight Preview & Prediction

Spence vs. Crawford: Big Fight Preview & Prediction

It is a mystery to the casual fan, even more so to the hardcore long-suffering fight aficionados, that with the untold millions that engulf and indeed corrupt the sport why we get so many awful fights. The riches on offer lead to avoidance and, worse. The sport is on its knees, only the delusional will argue. Money might make the world go round, but it is also the root of all evil in the sport. There are too many cooks. Too many crooks, some might say. Boxing always seems to find a way to let the fights the fans truly crave slip agonisingly away. But this time, boxing has found a way. The right way. This week has been different. A rare glimpse of what the sport can and should be.

It started in Japan with the wonderful brutality and brilliance of Naoya Inoue. A throwback fighter in every way imaginable. The annus mirabilis of a boxing week will end on Saturday night in Las Vegas with a welterweight fight for the ages. It might not be a fight that transcends outside of the immediate boxing bubble, but it is without any shadow of a doubt, a trade superfight. What both fighters lack in flashness and ego, they more than make up for it with the quality of their ring skills.

Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford will do battle for the undisputed welterweight championship of the world. Spence brings three alphabet baubles to the dance, Crawford only has the WBO version to trade, but do they really matter. The fight itself is all we need. It is an old-school fight between two old-school fighters.

It might be a little too late for some, but both fighters are still on the right side of their primes. Only just, but make no mistake, this is a long way removed from Mayweather Pacquiao.

But there are justifiable doubts that it might not quite be the fight it could have been a few years ago. Most of those doubts are aimed in the direction of Errol Spence. The whispers that his near-fatal car crash in 2019 has taken away enough of his talents to swing the balance in the direction of his opponent are too loud to ignore. The delay in recent times to get the fight over the line will no doubt benefit Spence. The rehabilitation from that horrific crash has been long and hard, and there has been a fragility about Spence that wasn’t there before. Time has allowed his body to try and fully recover. But time might not be what he needs. It just might be too late already. A far less serious car crash in 2022 in which Spence suffered injuries to his leg and a detached retina has also added to his woes. His career has been at risk on multiple occasions since he won the IBF world welterweight title in 2017.

Spence has fought twice since that night that nearly ended, not only his career but his life also. Last April, Yordenis Ugas demonstrated more than a few signs that Spence isn’t quite what he once was. It is extremely difficult to ignore that brutal right hand that had Spence rocking and reeling in that 6th round. If Crawford has such a moment in Las Vegas, Spence might not survive. Crawford isn’t Ugas.

Crawford has always believed he is at the elite level of his sport. The three-weight world champion is understated in a sport of extreme excess, a refreshing change, but his lack of profile more than hinders the perception that he is amongst the greatest fighters of his generation. He is, but you sense he needs a signature win to convince the lingering masses. If he beats Spence, he will have what he needs.

But those same accusations can be thrown at Spence also. The win over Kell Brook in Sheffield in 2017 had the look of an emerging potential superstar. But it hasn’t quite happened as expected. The fight on Saturday night is as Ashley Theophane quite rightfully says, “Is a fight to become a superstar.” In many ways, they need each other. They haven’t lost in sixty-seven fights between them, yet they both still need that signature win. A statistic that says plenty about the current state of the sport.

The fight sits somewhere between previous fights of this magnitude at welterweight. Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns battled for welterweight supremacy in 1981, and Donald Curry and Milton McCrory did the same four years later. Leonard and Hearns served up a war. Curry served up a clinical demolition of McCrory. Either would do quite nicely in Las Vegas. Another all-time classic or a true breakthrough star-making performance will give the sport the boost it so badly needs.

We really could get anything on Saturday night. And that adds to the intrigue of the fight. Maybe for the first time in their careers, Spence and Crawford enter the ring, knowing defeat is a more than realistic proposition. Nobody knows for certain who will win. And that includes the two fighters. Who will win, and how they will win is a beautiful ring of mystery.

Spence is 33 and unbeaten in twenty-eight. Crawford is two years older and hasn’t lost in thirty-nine fights. Crawford has had more fights and more rounds. But an argument could be made that it is Spence who has more miles on the clock. His lifestyle, and the struggles to make 147, all could catch up with him on Saturday night. Crawford might just have a little bit more left to give. It could be dedication that decides it. Crawford seems to be the fresher fighter, and the fighter with that extra gear to move into if he needs it. And the fighter who carries the greater power. Crawford has more ways to win I feel.

I do think the timing of the fight has been kind to Crawford. Many things point to Spence coming up short either on points or by a late stoppage. But Spence is far too good to be written off. And nobody should do that. It really is that kind of fight. And one that we should celebrate. Nights like this don’t come around very often. This is a fight that will be worth the wait. Trust me, it won’t disappoint.