Fight Overview
Terence Crawford displayed his greatness on a world stage with a ninth-round TKO victory over Errol Spence Jr. for the undisputed world championship of the welterweight division. Crawford had no problem boxing Spence and dominated practically every round. In the second round, Bud sent Spence to the canvas with a stiff right hand. This was the first time Errol Spence Jr. had been down in his career.
Errol Spence tried to fight his way back but was clearly out-classed and had no success in adjusting to Crawford’s onslaught of combinations. In the seventh round, Crawford countered Errol Spence with a right uppercut, which would send him to the ground for the second time in the fight. Soon after, Crawford hit Spence with a double right hook that nearly knocked Errol out of the ring and would be the third knockdown of the fight.
In the ninth round, Crawford kept applying pressure to a battered Errol Spence and the referee stopped the fight. The stoppage happened at a crucial moment that seemed as if Spence was going to be dropped for a fourth time. Errol Spence seemed to be the only person willing to contest the referee’s judgment. Everyone else in the T-mobile Arena seemed to be clearly aware that Errol Spence Jr. simply didn’t stand a chance after the beating he had received in rounds prior. Terence Crawford executed a brilliant game plan and put on a masterful performance. He showed his superior skillset by taking away Errol Spence Jr.’s strengths with perfectly timed counter shots throughout the night.
Final Thoughts
At this point, Terence Crawford has placed himself amongst the greatest welterweights in history. He is now the only male in the four-belt era to be undisputed champion in two weight classes. He also made a case to be recognized as the bonafide pound-for-pound king of boxing. This fight was the best performance of Crawford’s career and on the biggest stage. We are now experiencing the “Terence Crawford Era” of boxing.
As for Errol Spence, it may be time to consider hanging up the gloves and moving forward with life after boxing. This sport is unforgiving and at times unfair. Although this is the only blemish on Errol’s impressive record it is very likely that he has lost a huge portion of his fan base.
“Hell yeah we gotta do out again”, Spence stated in his post-fight interview when asked about exercising his rematch clause that was negotiated prior to the fight. Unfortunately for Spence, this fight was so one-sided and there wasn’t much work displayed on his part to show that a rematch would have any different outcome.
Congrats to @terencecrawford good shit ! …hopefully we can do it again before the end of the year ..
— Errol Spence (@ErrolSpenceJr) July 30, 2023
In Crawford’s post-fight interview, he said, “They tried to blackball me. They kept me out. They talked bad about me. They said I wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t beat these welterweights. I just kept my head to the sky and kept praying to God that I would get the opportunity to show the world how great Terence Crawford is. Tonight, I believe I showed how great I am.”
Only time will tell what’s next to come for Terence Crawford and Errol Spence. There will be many opportunities for Bud Crawford as he could activate the rematch clause against Spence and move up to fight in the 154-pound division. Jermell Charlo is also a possible opponent for Crawford at 154 lbs after he completed his scheduled bout with Canelo Alvarez. Another unlikely, but viable option is that Bud stays at 147 pounds to defend those titles against the likes of up-and-coming prospect Jeron “Boots” Ennis or Keith Thurmon.
Hopefully, Errol Spence can recover both physically and mentally from this fight. The Spence team should definitely consider Errol’s health and long-term well-being moving forward as he has taken major bodily damage over the past few years between his car crash incidents and this bout with Bud.
