Arguably the hottest, most fan-demanded fight in the sport right now, a welterweight unification clash between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence is seen by most as a 50/50 fight; a potentially great fight that could go either way and perhaps give us the next great 147-pound rivalry, with the two having more than one fight. But Bob Arum feels very strongly that this match-up produces only one winner, that the fight will not be the ultra-competitive classic plenty of us feel it will be.
Arum, speaking on ESPN shortly after Crawford’s quick destruction of Kell Brook, said “Bud” will do a similar job on Spence. Not that the Top Rank boss feels the fight will actually take place. Spence will avoid Crawford like the plague, Arum said.
“Errol Spence will try to avoid Terence Crawford as long as he can because he knows he can’t beat Terence Crawford,” Arum said. “You saw the performance tonight. I mean, he’ll take out Spence in about the same number of rounds like he took out Kell Brook.”
Arum also said that Crawford would have been competitive with the Sugar Ray Leonards and the Thomas Hearns of the world had he been around in that golden era when the best fought the best. So two quite bold statements from Arum. In fact three. First, will Spence look to dodge Crawford, has he in fact been doing so? Two, does Crawford take Spence out in around four rounds if the fight does take place. And three, would Crawford have lived with the likes of Hearns and Leonard?
We can argue all we want about the third statement, but Crawford against Hearns and Sugar Ray are fights that exist only in Dream Fight form. But on today’s best possible welterweight match-up, Crawford against Spence, is Arum right or wrong? No way is Spence looking to avoid Crawford, that’s just not his mindset. Neither is Crawford looking to swerve Spence. This is not how special fighters such as these two work. The fight might not happen, but it will be boxing politics that are at fault, not the heart and desire of either of these two champions.
This fight needs to happen, and that’s an obvious statement. And begging Arum’s pardon, there is no way the fight ends in four rounds, no matter who wins. Instead, both men would showcase their skills in front of the whole boxing world, most likely for the full 36 minutes. Can you separate Crawford and Spence? Who wins the decision?
Again, one fight might not be enough for these two to fully settle their differences.