LAS VEGAS — On July 29th, live on Showtime PPV, the highly anticipated showdown between Errol Spence Jr. (28-0 with 22 knockouts) and Terence Crawford (39-0 with 30 knockouts) will take centerstage at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bout has been brewing for years and will finally be served up to the boxing public during one of the hottest summers in history. This fight has the makings of adding to the heat, as stylistically, these two are made to put on an absolute war. With a combined record of 67-0, someone’s 0 must indeed go.
The Mayweather family is royalty in the boxing world. World-class trainer, Jeff Mayweather chimes in on the much-anticipated bout between Spence and Crawford. While sharing insight to both fighters strengths, Mayweather talks about the impact of each trainer, explains why the fans are the true winners and much more.
Zenger: What impresses you the most about Errol Spence Jr.?
Mayweather: He walks you down and throws brutal body shots. He’s got some good power.
Zenger: What impresses you most about Terence Crawford?
Mayweather: Crawford has so many different ways to beat you. He can fight southpaw or orthodox, and he can punch too. He gets in and gets out a lot, rather than just walking you down.
Zenger: When you look at each guy’s trainer, how big of a factor will Derrick James and Brian “BoMac” McIntyre be during the course of this fight?
Mayweather: I think they both play a major part because this is the biggest fight in the world. You got two guys that are still in their prime, and ready to go for broke. They are putting it all on the line. That 60 seconds in between rounds will mean something. I think at some point, both fighters are going to have to make some adjustments to implement what they’re looking to do to one another.
Zenger: We have all wanted this fight to come to fruition for a long time. Now that it’s here, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being very excited, how excited are you for this fight?
Mayweather: I’m very excited. Like I said, this is one of those fights that people will be talking about for a long time; maybe forever. This is kind of like the era when you had Tommy Hearns, Ray Leonard, [Roberto] Duran, and [Marvin] Hagler, and all those guys fought each other. But these two are the absolute best at their weight class. They are putting it all on the table. We’re in the 4-belt era, one guy, Spence has 3 of them, Crawford has the other one, and they are settling who is the best in the ring. That doesn’t happen too often. Or, let me say, that doesn’t always happen.
Zenger: Now, the tough question. Who wins this fight?
Mayweather: It’s so tough, man. And in today’s time, you can’t really say, I pick this guy, or I pick that guy, or they’ll never speak to you again (laughing). That’s also an era that we’re in. So, most of the time now, I feel comfortable saying… especially for this fight, the fans will win. It’s funny, I said, Devin Haney was going to lose to [George] Kambosos, not because of his ability, but because of the situation he put himself in. I thought that Kambosos was going to do enough to win the fight in his country, but he didn’t. Me and Devin had a big ole beef, but we ended up squashing it. He was like, “Jeff, you trained me, you should always be in my corner.” I said to myself, I’m dealing with the reality of you going into that guy backyard [Australia], and you have no power. Being that you have no power, it’s not like you’re going to knock this guy out. Which means, if you don’t knock him out, there’s a chance he can win. We got past it. I know Terence and I know Errol. If I say one is going to get beat by the other one, they gonna be mad as hell. So, the fans are the winners.
I did the same thing with Chris Eubanks Jr. A long time ago, I forgot who he fought. I think it was his first loss. What happened was, one guy had a chance to pick before me. He picked Chris, so I had to pick the other guy, the other guy won. Chris hasn’t spoken to me since. He finally spoke to me… it was about 5 years later, and he spoke to me. That’s how they are today.
Zenger: Do you feel like this fight will go the distance?
Mayweather: I think so. I definitely think it’s going the distance.
Edited by Deborah .C. Amirize and Virginia Van Zandt
