His time in the welterweight division has been filled with ups, downs, and painful weight cuts – emphasis on the latter. Throughout it all, Errol Spence Jr. has put all of his trials and tribulations behind him and found a way to position himself for the biggest fight in recent history.
This Saturday night, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Spence and Terence Crawford will battle it out with all of the welterweight marbles on the line. Getting to his point was never expected to be easy but for Spence, his road has been a bit more arduous.
Two car wrecks, a detached/torn retina, and protracted periods of inactivity haven’t helped Spence in the slightest. Still, he isn’t complaining.
While he’s excited about his possible place in history, Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) notices that the hours to Saturday night are moving slower and slower. With each passing day, Spence’s weight cut to 147 pounds becomes more difficult. Although a bilateral rematch is baked into their fight agreement, Spence has always been noncommittal on whether or not he would face Crawford again at the welterweight limit.
In addition to his body needing a reprieve, Spence misses the good ole days when he was the hunter and not the hunted. For years now, Spence has lived by many monikers, none more so than “strap season.” Beating Crawford this Saturday night would make his phrase a meaningless one. At 154 pounds, however, Spence could relive those glory days all over again.
“I beat Kell Brook, I was saying strap season, strap me up,” said Spence to Ray Flores. “Then I beat Shawn Porter, got another strap. Had stuff that happen to me but then I beat Ugas and got another strap. Then I sat out a year and a half trying to make this fight happen with Terence Crawford to get the other strap. After that, I paid my obligations to the welterweight division. It’s time to move up and it’ll be strap season all over again.”