Brian McIntyre thinks Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford’s second round knockdown of Errol Spence Jr. was more than just of the “flash” variety. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
The longtime trainer of the newly crowned undisputed welterweight champion from Omaha, Nebraska, feels his charge could have stopped Spence as early as the second round when Crawford scored the first of three knockdowns in their high-profile fight.
Crawford unified the WBO, WBA, WBC, and IBF 147-pound titles last Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in a memorable performance that saw him dominate Spence, of Desoto, Texas, for long stretches, eventually forcing referee Harvey Dock to wave off the fight in the ninth round.
With 20 seconds left in the second round, Crawford dropped Spence, for the first time in the latter’s career, with a hard jab. Spence immediately got back up on his feet, and the round would end a few seconds later before Crawford could inflict more damage.
McIntyre feels had there been at least a minute left in the round that Spence would have folded, saying that Spence was more hurt than he let on. Crawford himself said after the fight that he believed the first knockdown was simply a “flash knockdown,” and that Spence was not truly hurt.
“This is where he (Spence) f—– up at,” McIntyre told FightHype. “His legs are too far apart. What it does he brings his height down. When you bring your height down, you start reaching at the fighter because your legs are too f—— far apart, you know what I’m sayin’?
“Once you start stepping and your feet are not as fast as your hands, you will always come up short. But his feet was slow. His movement was slow, and his hands were slow. So that just made it more perfect. If you see the second round, I said this, this motherf—– is not as fast as you. Any chance you get to counter over the top, make it happen. And he (Crawford) came back with that two-one—that’s when he dropped him. Simple!
“When he (Spence) got up, he (Crawford) would’ve stopped him in the second round if that bell didn’t clap. F— yeah. He was done. Go look at his balance, man, when he got up, he was done. Even when the ref got him up and gave him the eight-count and the bell rung, he laughed. He was still shaky.
“If Bud would’ve had another minute, he would’ve stopped him. He would’ve f—— stopped him. I promise you that.”
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.