Former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver feels that Errol Spence Jr wasn’t prepared correctly by his trainer Derrick James for his fight last Saturday night against Terence Crawford, which he wound up losing by a ninth round TKO and looked terrible.
Tarver lays the blame squarely on the shoulders of Derrick for how Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) looked in the contest, as he didn’t appear well-trained for the contest. There was no adjustment made by Spence when the tide started going against him in the early rounds.
Tarver notes that Spence’s defense was nowhere to be found, and he couldn’t get out of the way of Crawford’ss jab all night.
The deck was already stacked against the 33-year-old Spence going into the contest because he was facing the more technical fighter in Crawford.
For that reason, Spence needed to work hard to make up the difference in going up against the more talented fighter. Ultimately, Spence’s lack of preparation cost him the fight and jeopardized his career.
If you look at Spence’s fight with Leonard Bundu from 2016, you can see the same exact style and flaws that were present against Crawford.
Spence’s flaws:
- Slow hand speed
- Wide stance
- Poor defense
Spence obviously isn’t going to fire his trainer Derrick James, so it’s unclear how he’ll improve moving forward. Listening to Tarver talk, one gets the sense that he’s hoping to entice Spence into hiring him as his new coach.
Without a new coach that can fix some of the flaws in his game, Spence is going to lose to Crawford again, and his career could be over.
“I saw a fighter that’s on a real elite level, a smart fighter, a complete fighter that knows his way around the ring. I was so impressed by the way he controlled the whole fight
we control the whole fight,” said Antonio Tarver to Secondsout, discussing Terence Crawford’s win over Errol Spence Jr.
“I’m befuddled by what I saw from Spence in a fight of this magnitude. He didn’t have no answers. It didn’t seem like he had no answers defensively or didn’t have the ability to make an adjustment and do what he needed to do to stay in this fight,” continued Tarver.
“No defense. He couldn’t get away from the jab. The jab is what beat him all night, and when he had some success, it was when Terence Crawford was just working on defense.
“You can’t just always be offensive-minded in a fight. You got to let a guy throw his punches and then let him expend himself a little bit. But the way he went about this fight, and then the result, the domination, the knockdowns and the knockout, and the stoppage.
“That she was just a beautiful fight, a beautifully executed fight by Terence Crawford, and it didn’t look like they were in the same class of fighters. He [Crawford] made this tough fight very easy.
“I got to be honest. They crown these guys trainers of the year and all this stuff, but this man wasn’t prepared for no Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford tonight. The trainer has got to take some flack for that. It’s his responsibility to have his fighter ready.
“He had to know nothing about no defense. No head movement, no feints. Didn’t have his hands up. Feet all everywhere. Where are the lessons? I’ve been out here campaigning as a trainer, and I predicted the whole fight.
“I know boxing, and they won’t let me help these guys. Boxing won’t even help itself. They won’t put people in positions that can make a difference,” said Tarver.
