THE long-awaited showdown between welterweights Errol Spence and Terence Crawford came to pass at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 29. Crawford was masterful and dominated Spence en route to an unexpectedly one-sided ninth-round stoppage.
Crawford and Spence have been at or near the top of most pound-for-pound lists for years. But neither man had the signature victory on his resume that a fighter needs to be considered great. Crawford’s most impressive performance had been his 2021 stoppage of Shawn Porter (who’d gone the distance in losing a split-decision to Spence two years earlier). Errol had dominated some good fighters but no great ones.
Boxing makes fans wait years for match-ups that other sports deliver during the course of a single season. Spence-Crawford took far too long to make. Six months ago, ESPN analyst and Hall of Fame fighter Tim Bradley voiced his frustration with the delay and held Errol’s feet to the fire, placing blame for the delay squarely on Spence.
“Errol Spence is running from Crawford,” Bradley declared. “He’s running like a son of a gun. That’s the only fight that you said you wanted. That’s the fight that you said you were
