Who will win? Terence Crawford or Errol Spence Jr.? Before things played out the way they did on July 29th, you would be hard-pressed to find a consensus answer to that question. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
The boxing public was essentially split right down the middle. Those who were siding with Spence pointed to his physical strength, his level of competition, and overpowering jab. Those who were taking Crawford accentuated his boxing ability, ring IQ, and overall savviness. Regardless of who you were taking, practically no one expected it to be one-way traffic. Yet, that’s exactly what we got.
The opening round between them was as close as it gets. But in the eyes of two of three judges sitting ringside, Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) held the edge. From there, it was all Crawford.
In the second, the Omaha, Nebraska, native dropped his man. For the next four consecutive rounds, he pummeled him. In the seventh, Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) reacquainted the Dallas native with the canvas on two occasions before officially putting him out of his misery in the ninth. From the outside looking in, Crawford appeared to be on cruise control. Those who believe it was nothing more than a walk in the park, however, are incredibly wrong.
“I wouldn’t say it’s easy because I trained so f—— hard for that fight,” said Crawford during an interview with The Breakfast Club. “I put the work in.”
The training that Crawford alludes to clearly worked. He was a step ahead of Spence all night long and appeared to have the edge in virtually every department. Although Spence was ostensibly myopic, Crawford doesn’t want anyone to take away from the best win of his career.
In all likelihood, the two will do it again. With Spence refusing to simply take his loss on the chin and walk away, he already revealed that he fully plans on activating his immediate rematch clause. How their sequel will play out isn’t relevant to Crawford at this point in time. All that he simply asks is for fans and media pundits to refrain from saying that beating Spence was an easy night at the pugilistic office.
“It may look easy on TV but there’s a lot that goes into fighting.”