The long awaited showdown between Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford finally took place Saturday night in Las Vegas.
The historic bout, which would seek to unify the welterweight belts for the first time in the “four belt era” was years in the making as the two fighters had numerous false starts and nearly completed deals fall through. So much so that some believed the fight may never ultimately materialize.
But when all was said and done it would be Crawford who would emerge victorious with a 9th round TKO, becoming the first ever undisputed welterweight champion.
The 35 year old set the tone early, scoring a knockdown in round two. From there, it was a non-stop barrage of offense as Crawford would drop Spence Jr. two more times before the end of the 7th round.
Referee Havey Dock would call an end to the punishment at 2 minutes 32 seconds in the 9th round after a flurry of unanswered shots landed in succession. Besides the opening round, it was evident that Crawford would have been ahead in every round on the judge’s scorecards, making the stoppage more of a mercy killing than a controversial finish.
“Like I said before, I only dreamed of being a world champion,” said Crawford after the fight. “I’m an overachiever. Nobody believed in me when I was coming up, but I made everybody a believer.”
“He was the better man tonight,” said Spence Jr., who holds the rematch clause. With pay-per-view numbers still being finalized, it’s estimated that the bout easily eclipsed 700,000 purchases, raking in $50M+ in revenue. With so much money at stake, it’s almost a guarantee that the two will meet in the ring again in the not so distant future.
The win moves Crawford to 40-0 (31 KOs) in his career, while Spence Jr. picks up the first blemish on his professional fighting record at 28-1 (22 KOs).
Crawford would finish the fight landing 50% of his punches (185 of 369), with 60% of his power punches (98 of 263) landing flush. By contrast, Spence landed only 96 total punches, with 33 of them being jabs.
“They tried to blackball me, they kept me out, they kept me out,” Crawford said. “They talked bad about me, they said I wasn’t good enough, that I couldn’t beat these top welterweights, and I just kept my head to the sky and I kept praying to God that I would get the opportunity to show the world who Terence Crawford is. And tonight, I believe I showed how great I am.”
Spence Jr. now has a 30 day window in which he can trigger a rematch clause, with the winner being able to choose whether the next bout takes place at 147 or 154lbs. Fight insiders are already beginning to speculate that the rematch could take place in December of 2023.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Cringemaster113. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.