No one is going to doubt Terence Crawford now.
Crawford turned in one of the greatest performances in recent years Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, putting fellow pound-for-pounder Errol Spence Jr. down three times and taking him out in the ninth round of what turned out to be a mismatch. In the process, he became the first undisputed welterweight champion in the four-belt era and also the first man to win all four major belts in a second division.
More important, he flawlessly annihilated one of the most heralded fighters of this generation, a feat that will be remembered longer than his collection of alphabet belts.
It was a perfect night for the pride of Omaha, Nebraska.
“Man, I’m so blessed,” Crawford said afterward. “I swear, I swear, like I said before, I always dreamed of being a world champion. I’m an overachiever. Nobody believed in me when I was coming up.
“I made everybody a believer.”
Indeed, he did. And it started in the second round.
That’s when, with about 20 seconds to go, Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) put Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) down with a right jab that resembled a power punch. Spence got up and wasn’t hurt badly. However, Crawford was just getting started.
From then on, the winner was in complete control, landing that jab, brilliantly countering everything Spence tried to do and taking few shots himself.
As a result, like a great artist at work, he coldly, methodically picked his prey apart, landing almost at will much of the fight; bloodied his face; and broke down a man that most observers thought was Crawford’s equal going into Saturday night.
The fight was already slipping away from Spence in Round 7, in which Crawford put him down twice, first by a counter right about a minute into the round and then by a right hook in the final seconds. The end seemed near.
And it was. Crawford stung Spence about midway through Round 9 and then unloaded as vicious an assault as you’ll ever see in the ring. Spence somehow remained on his feet but he took terrible punishment, enough to convince referee Harvey Dock to end the slaughter.
The official time of the stoppage was 2:32 of the ninth.
Crawford added Spence’s three belts to his WBO title, making him the undisputed champion. He was asked afterward what that and becoming the first man to be “undisputed” in a second division means to him.
He responded by reminding everyone how difficult it was for him to lure the other top welterweights into the ring for so many years.
“It means everything,” he said, “because of who I took the belts from. They tried to black ball me. They kept me out. They talked bad about me. They said I wasn’t good enough, that I couldn’t beat the top welterweights.
“I kept my head to the sky, I kept praying to God that I’d get the opportunity show the world how great Terence Crawford is. And tonight I believe I showed how great I am.”
Spence, his face badly bruised, was as classy as he could be afterward.
“He was the better man tonight,” said Spence, who hadn’t fought in 15 months. “He was using his jab. And my timing was a little bit off and you know he was catching me in between shots.”
He was asked by the interviewer: “Was the timing off because of the layoff or was the timing off because he was so much better today?”
“He was just better tonight. I make no excuses,” Spence responded.
The assumption going into the fight was that Crawford and Spence would have a rematch. That option doesn’t make sense now.
However, Spence made it clear that he will take advantage of the rematch clause in their contract to get another shot at his conqueror.
He said beforehand that he intended to move up to 154 after the fight, meaning a potential rematch might be at junior middleweight or perhaps at a catch weight.
“Hell yeah, we gotta do it again,” he said. “I’ll be a lot better. It’s going to be a lot closer. It’ll probably be in December. So, hell yeah, we gotta do it again.”
Crawford believes the fans would buy into a rematch in spite of the one-sided nature of the first fight.
“Of course, the public would buy it,” he said. “Look how many people came out to show me and Errol Spence support. … If the fight happens again, I’m pretty sure everybody would show up again and show us support.”
Like boxing? Be sure to visit Boxing Junkie for all your coverage of the sweet science and follow @BoxingJunkie2 on Twitter.
