It was deemed impossible that Naoya Inoue’s performance against Stephen Fulton would become outmatched anytime soon, yet last Saturday produced a stunning event topped off by Terence Crawford’s historic win over Errol Spence Jr. Crawford has become the first male boxer to become undisputed in two divisions after his scintillating performance over Spence, and has rightfully earned himself a position as an all-time great following his win last Saturday. The match was held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 29th.
Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KO’s), 35, has been one of boxing’s most underrated fighters for nearly a decade. Though highly-skilled, Crawford’s resume and achievements (which include becoming undisputed as a junior welterweight), have made him a respected fighter but only after Saturday has the Nebraska-born fighter truly become revered as an all-time great.
Errol Spence Jr. (28-1, 22 KO’s), 33, had always been known to be a pound-for-pound fighter and was considered the best (if not one of the best) welterweights of this era. However, last Saturday completely shook the boxing world as Crawford produced a dominating display to defeat Spence Jr. in the 9th round by TKO.
With both fighters fighting as southpaws, the first round seemed to go in favor of Errol Spence Jr. as he established his jab and seemingly prevented Terence Crawford from gaining his rhythm. It wasn’t an overly entertaining round as the two fighters were still feeling each other out, but Spence Jr. was clearly the more active fighter.
This all changed in the second round. Though usually known as a slow fighter cause of his tendency to analyze his opponent to find weakness, Crawford uncharacteristically stepped up the pace in this round. The two were more active than they had been during the first round and clearly landed more punches, as indicated by CompuBox’s punch stats:
It was Crawford who looked on the path of winning the round after he landed more punches and seemed the busier fighter, but after the 2nd minute had passed the entire arena was stunned when Crawford knocked down Spence Jr. with a devastating one-two combination that ended with a jab. By this point, it seemed like the match turned and though Crawford failed to finish Spence in the remaining minutes once Spence had recovered from his knockdown, the entire tide of the battle had been changed.
From the 3rd round to the 9th round onward, Terence Crawford was an unstoppable force that clearly outclassed Errol Spence Jr. due to his combination of defense and offense. Both of these elements resulted in what will probably be considered a legendary performance as Crawford completely nullified Spence’s offense while proving to be insanely accurate and devastating with his own punches.
There was virtually nothing that Errol Spence Jr. could do from the 3rd round at that point, and the world witnessed what might have been the most dominating performance from Terence Crawford in what was undoubtedly one of the most significant and historical matches in the history of the sport.
Embodying the boxing principle of “hit and not get hit”, Terence Crawford dominated the rest of the rounds with probably the greatest boxing that has been witnessed in quite some time. At mid-range, long-range or on the inside, Crawford always seemed accurate and his blows always seemed detrimental. His ability to block and evade punches seemed to rival that of defensive mastermind Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Crawford’s speed, power and accuracy resulted in a thorough beating of Errol Spence Jr. On top of this display, Crawford’s counterpunching ability was something extraordinary as he perfectly timed Spence Jr. each time he attempted to come forward and left Spence Jr. rattled with damaging punches.
To Errol Spence Jr.’s credit, despite being clearly outclassed, the former unified welterweight champion showed the heart and spirit of a warrior by continuously coming forward despite the damage he was taken. Though he had no answers for Crawford, he proved his toughness in one of boxing’s most grittiest displays ever seen.
In the 7th round, Crawford found himself pushed into the corner but it was merely a trap to set up his uppercut. Spence was knocked down as a result, though he did manage to land a left hook on Crawford that did not seem to do near as much damage as Crawford’s own uppercut. Spence Jr. rose quickly to beat the count of 10 following the knockout but given the damage he had endured during the past couple of rounds, it was clear that this knockdown sealed his defeat.
In the closing last half minute of the same round, Terence Crawford dropped Errol Spence Jr. again with a right hook that almost sent Spence flying a couple feet, resulting in the second knockdown of the round and third of the match. Spence Jr. seemed to be saved by the bell at this point as Crawford sought to capitalize, but time was not on Crawford’s side.
The 8th round featured both fighters becoming rather inactive as opposed to their earlier rounds, but it was the 9th round that would prove to be the decisive moment for both fighters. In the closing half of the round, Terence Crawford decided to become aggressive once more and completely devastated Errol Spence Jr. with an onslaught of hard punches, including hooks. Though Spence Jr. amazingly stayed on his feet, he was getting beat worse than even the previous rounds and found himself flung around the ring by Crawford which eventually prompted the referee to intervene and stop the fight.
Terence Crawford became the undisputed welterweight as a result, winning by technical knockout following the referee’s stoppage and making history by producing the most dominant display ever seen in an undisputed match. He further became the first male boxer to become undisputed in two weight classes, an achievement that has only been matched by another female boxer in Claressa Shields.
Spence Jr.’s WBA, WBC and IBF title were also conquered by Terence Crawford in the process as a result of his victory. It was completely unexpected that the match between Naoya Inoue (25-0, 22 KO’s) and Stephen Fulton (21-1, 8 KO’s) in the same week on July 25th would be matched but Crawford somehow subverted all expectations. More importantly, Crawford likely became the nr. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the process after beating a fellow pound-for-pound fighter in Errol Spence Jr., just days after it seemed like Inoue had taken the nr. 1 spot after decisively beating Fulton.
The event further featured former lightweight world title challenger, Isaac Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KO’s) in the co-maint event of the evening. The latter would go on to net a split-decision win over fellow contender Giovanni Cabrera (21-1, 7 KO’s). Cruz won by split decision as he seemingly couldn’t convince the judges he had been more dominant. Though virtually dominating every round, Cruz’ inability to finish Cabrera may have played a part in the closely-judged decision at the end.
It was perhaps not a statement win for Isaac Cruz who had been on a KO streak for the past 2 matches, but there was no doubt that he still remains one of the most dangerous lightweights and a worthy world title contender if he would get the opportunity.
Boxing veteran and future hall of famer Nonito Donaire (42-8, 28 KO’s) also made his return to the ring following his loss to Naoya Inoue last year in June. He went up against bantamweight contender Alexandre Santiago (28-3-5, 14 KO’s) who had been in a world title fight before facing Donaire, but unlike Donaire had never won a title. The two fighters battled for the vacant WBC bantamweight title that had been relinquished by Inoue when he moved up to super bantamweight.
Though Donaire showed to be on the decline during the match, Santiago struggled times against the veteran in what would eventually be ruled a unanimous decision win in favor of Santiago. Donaire’s long-praised toughness and resilience were on full display against Santiago who clearly lost several rounds to the older fighter. However, age clearly seemed to be a factor in this match, and Donaire could not match Santiago’s greater punch output and activity,
Terence Crawford capitalized a significant career following his win over Errol Spence Jr. by becoming undisputed for the second time. Not only will the match go down in history for what was achieved, the fact that Crawford produced such a dominant display against another pound-for-pound fighter likely placed him at the very top of the pound-for-pound list, a list he has been on for nearly a decade. Only now, however, has Crawford taken a clear lead on the rest of the fighters on the list, and earned himself the status of being the best in the world by retaining his unbeaten record, making history and beating one of the best fighters on the planet.
