To kick off the promotion of their undisputed welterweight matchup, Errol Spence Jr. said his clash against Terence Crawford was the most significant 147-pound fight of the last 40 years, and 10 years overall.
Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) is now doubling down on the storyline, saying that his July 29 super fight against Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) is the most significant matchup of the millennium.
“This is a legacy fight for me. This is Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns. This is Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad,” Spence told a group of reporters.
“This is a legacy fight. Two undefeated fighters fighting for [the] undisputed [championship at 147 pounds]. This is probably the biggest fight of the last 10 to 20 years. Everyone says the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight was huge, but they were a lot older. We’re in our prime. This is going to be an amazing fight. Everybody knows he has knockout power, and I have knockout power. So we’re going to put on an amazing show and an amazing performance.”
Much like Spence and Crawford, Mayweather and Pacquiao marinated their much-desired fight for years until finally squaring off in 2015 for the most lucrative fight in boxing history.
Spence and Crawford will not enjoy anywhere near the financial spoils Mayweather and Pacquiao did, but their fight will likely be a barn burner with the intense ebb and flows that Mayweather and Pacquiao lacked.
Mayweather was 38 years old when he fought Pacquiao; the Filipino icon was 36.
Crawford is currently 35 years of age, and Spence is 33.
The winner of Spence versus Crawford will mark boxing’s first fully unified welterweight champion of the four-belt era.
Spence and Crawford will fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and headline a Premier Boxing Champions card on Showtime pay-per-view.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.