The biggest fight at welterweight happened and left no question as to who the better man was this past Saturday. Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford dominated Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence, scoring three knockdown and stopping Spence Jr in the ninth round to claim undisputed champion of the welterweight division.
The first round was a slow, getting familiar type opening amongst both fighters, from there though, Crawford completely took over the fight and never looked back. The first knockdown came off a counter jab that was followed by a straight left in the second round.
Spence Jr beat the count as he tried to collect himself and tried to answer back, however, Crawford was too smart, too fast and too powerful.
Crawford can attest a lot of his success to an elite jab he showcased all night long. Most boxers will use the jab to set up for a combo, or gauge the distance of the opponents but ‘Bud’ used his jab as a true stopper against Spence Jr.
Every time Spence Jr would try to get any traction, Crawford would shoot his jab with such ferocity that it would neutralize any momentum Spence Jr would look to get.
Every round, Spence looked outclassed as Crawford landed jab after jab and smooth straight lefts. Spence Jr would try to pressure Crawford and look to find a sweet spot to change the trajectory of the bout but found himself being at the end of a hard shot from Crawford that would then put Spence Jr in a defensive game-plan.
Spence Jr would see the floor of the ring twice in the seventh round and tried to find a way to steal the fight away but by the ninth round, Crawford didn’t seem to be losing any control of the fight and kept punishing Spence Jr left and right to the point the referee had seen enough and stopped the fight at the end of the ninth round.
With this win, Crawford unified the WBA, WBC and IBF belts with his WBO title and ended any question as to who the number one welterweight in the world is and make a stamp as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world as Crawford also made history as the first ever male boxer with two weight undisputed champion titles, adding to his 140 lbs undisputed highlight on his resume.
Both men agreed on a 30-day rematch activation clause in the contract to fight, which Spence Jr indicated he wanted, but at 154 lbs as 147 lbs was too much for Spence Jr to keep dropping down to. Crawford being the winner will dictate what weight the fight will be held at should Spence Jr accept those terms.
