Tim Bradley is convinced that Terence Crawford will pick unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. apart by countering him all night if he fights recklessly against him in their undisputed fight this year.
Although Bradley isn’t counting on Spence (28-0, 22 KOs), he feels that the Texas native is biting off more than he can chew taking on the highly skilled WBO champion Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs), and he could be right.
Spence was wobbled by 35-year-old WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas before coming on to stop the Cuban fighter due to an eye injury in the tenth round. Ugas isn’t a spring chicken, and he was able to put hands on Spence in a fight that he could have won if not for the eye problem.
“Both of these dudes are champions. Both of them are dogs. Terence is a dog and so is Spence,” said Tim Bradley to K.O. Artist Sports. “Spence got thrown [out of a car].
“Terence never been thrown out of a car at 100 mph and still survive and then not have nothing wrong with him. That’s dog. That’s Jesus with you. Then come back and fight a guy like Danny Garcia,” said Bradley.
Spence didn’t look like his old self again until his fight against Ugas. That car crash in 2019 had to have taken something out of Spence because it took him nearly three years before he finally resembled the fighter that he’d been before the crash.
“Trust me, Spence ain’t no joke,” said Bradley. “Terence ain’t no joke either, and that’s why they’ve got to get in the ring. We got to see what’s going to happen. I keep looking at this fight, and looking at video on both of these guys all the time. It’s a 50-50 fight.
“I favor Terence Crawford, that’s who I favor, but Spence can easily win this fight too. It can go either way. It’s 50-50 in my opinion, but I’m going to favor Terence Crawford and I’ll tell you why. I think he has better feet than Spence.
“Spence is more technically sound as far as with the basics. Jab, jab, and consistent with his offense constantly. He makes up for a lot of his mistakes with his volume.
“He does make some mistakes. He will lunge forward at times, and come in and come out in a straight line. He makes some mistakes, but so does Crawford. Crawford makes some mistakes too, and now he’s got to get in the ring with a guy that is a southpaw.
“It ain’t a right-hander where he can switch southpaw and take the jab away. It’s a little more difficult now. Now you’ve got a dude [Errol Spence Jr] that has a jab himself, a strong jab and he’s consistent with it. He throws it in various ways coming down your throat.
“You switch southpaw and now it’s even money. Let’s go. If Crawford can take his jab away, which I think he could by making him pick up his feet, and then counter him and make him miss, he can beat him.
“It’s all about the movement, moving side to side. If you stand in front of Spence, you’re going to get chopped to pieces, and Crawford is not dumb. He’s going to use his legs, and move. I know Spence is going to try and cut off the ring, but Crawford has a lot of awareness inside the ring and he’s a great counter puncher.
“Anything Spence throws, he’s going to try and counter the s*** out of it. It’s going to be fast and unexpected. If Spence gets hit with those shots and if he can take them punches, he can be in this fight, no doubt about it.
“I don’t know if he can, bro. I seen Crawford hit guys flush, bing, and their whole world gets turned upside down. I already told y’all, I got Crawford by stoppage.
“If Crawford can frustrate Spence, Spence fights harder and he’ll fight harder and he’ll make more mistakes. When he makes mistakes, those counters will be coming and all it’ll take is one, bing, and it’s going to be nighty, night, night.
“I know what you’re going to say. ‘Crawford ain’t breaking faces.’ Crawford is the welterweight that gets hit the least in the business. Crawford sometimes pulls back, but he’s got to be careful doing that against Spence.
“Pulling back with his hands exposed, don’t do that against Spence. You better tuck and roll underneath because Spence is going to be coming with them joints.
“Great fight, though, a compelling fight. I love the styles. I can talk about this all day. I just told you why I got Crawford. Just don’t tell me that ‘I got Spence because he’s stronger, bigger, and all this bull s***.’ Being stronger and bigger don’t win you fights.
“Look at Mike Tyson, he’s small, 5’11”, knocking out giants, so don’t give me that,” said Bradley.
