The fight is late but still great:- We all agree that the fight should have happened by now, fans were irritated and exhausted with all the drama that was going on during negotiations and had even lost interest to talk about the fight anymore until it was official. Now that the fight is official, we can finally talk about why this fight has so much hype around it and got the boxing world talking about who has the advantage and who wins.

Both fighters are at similar stages of their career and the fight in itself still has not passed their sell-by date yet unlike Pacquaio-Mayweather which felt like an exhibition more than an actual fight. The fight still holds the same amount of excitement because it is still a very close fight to be called. You won’t find a better 50-50 matchup in boxing than Spence – Crawford. The next closest fight in my opinion which is a proper 50-50 matchup is Tank – Shakur but that fight can still wait since those fighters are still young, it can marinate for some time before it’s made. Also what’s important is that there is a rematch clause which means it’s certain we get to see these 2 fighters face each other on multiple occasions, because the fighter that loses is going to activate that rematch clause.

It’s so hard to separate Spence and Crawford from a skills standpoint. If Crawford is a better counterpuncher, can switch stance with ease and has better 1 punch KO power, Spence cancels Crawford out by being a better and relentless body puncher, has a better jab, is extremely heavy-handed, and has a better inside game. In terms of attributes like chin, conditioning, ring iq and footwork, it’s a toss-up and an extremely close call, you could pick either one of them. On top of that, both fighters have massive egos which eliminates this fight from being a chess match, their egos are just too big at this point and the urge to prove supremacy and to show who is the boss inside the ring not just to other fighter but to other fighters fanbase just wouldn’t allow it to be a boring fight, neither there would be any feeling out process at the beginning of the fight. In fact, because of their massive ego’s, I see this fight has potential and hope to exhibit Rd 1 of Hagler-Hearns kind of action in multiple rounds. Imagine if that happens, this fight is destined to be an all-time classic and fans would remember this fight for years as one of the greatest welterweight fights of all time.

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Crawford’s journey so far:- Crawford has had 39 fights so far, is undefeated, former undisputed junior welterweight champion, a 3-weight world champion and a p4p great for so long. This on paper would make you think of what a career he has had so far. However, that’s not the general impression of Crawford’s career and legacy amongst fans and purists. There has always been this scrutiny on the kind of opponents Crawford has faced so far and there is substance to this criticism as well in my opinion. if you have followed Crawford’s career, early on his initial 19 bouts were against opponents you would have never probably heard of. His performances then started to garner some attention when he fought the likes of Burns and won the lightweight title and then against Gamboa where he was rocked and you can say finally tested.

He continued to impress with his performances and then jumped another weight class to junior welterweight where he would accomplish the most coveted prize in boxing “The Undisputed Title”. He accomplished his undisputed reign by beating following champions Dulorme, Postol and Indongo. These are good and worthy opponents but if you want to be mentioned alongside all-time greats, this kind of fight isn’t going to place you in those conversations and neither going to elevate your legacies. Also amongst all the active undisputed champs, I feel Crawford’s run at being undisputed is the weakest and that’s not a knock on Crawford because he has beaten every man that stepped in the ring with him.

However to achieve greatness if you do not have great opponents in your weight class, you have to step up and that’s what Crawford has done. He moved up to the welterweight division and surprisingly his power carried as well at this weight class where he has been impressing even more with his performances by being this KO artist and knocking guys out for fun. In Spence, he finally has a dance partner that he has looking for throughout his career and if Crawford manages to pull off the victory twice considering there is a rematch clause, we would be having whole another conversation about Crawford’s legacy and his placing amongst all-time greats.

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Spence’s journey so far:- Spence grabbed attention from fans and analysts worldwide, when the sparring stories came out of him giving Floyd a black eye and dropping Adrien Broner, the Broner stories were even confirmed by Freddie Roach. That put Spence on the map like a boogeyman of the division and then he had the skills to back it up. Spence is a throwback fighter, has that old-school mentality, doesn’t believe in tune-up fights, is still undefeated, has 3 of the 4 belts and has a solid resume as a welterweight by beating guys like Ugas, Porter, Danny Garcia, Mikey, Brook.

There is nothing flashy about Spence’s style like it’s with Crawford, however, you don’t need to be flashy to win a fight. Spence has a very technical style with strong fundamentals to the point where he has mastered those fundamentals, he knows how to break fighters down physically and mentally. He is relentless with his pressure especially to the body to a point where his opponent doesn’t know how to keep him off, and to add to that he is extremely heavy-handed with his left hand, uppercuts, jabs, right hooks to the point where he either drops and knocks you out or breaks your eye socket and forces the corner to throw in the towel. In addition to all the accomplishments so far for Spence, the fact that he miraculously survived after flipping his Ferrari in a high-speed car crash and did not suffer any broken bones, he knew he got a second chance. To just get your life back on track after going through such a horrific accident would be considered an accomplishment, the fact that Spence not only got his life back on track but choose to come back and fight Danny Garcia that speaks volumes of Spence as a fighter and how he wants fans to view his legacy. 

Talking about legacy Spence knows he still can’t be considered the king and boogeyman of the division when there is another great fighter in your division and the opinions on who the king is split between you and another fighter. Also, this is a legacy fight for both fighters since the Welterweight division has never seen an undisputed champion since the 4-belt era inception, which makes this a historical and legacy fight.

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The outcome of the fight:- In my head, I play out so many scenarios for this fight and every scenario would and can change the outcome of the fight, which is what makes this fight intriguing and so close to call.

1. Spence getting the nickname eye collector lately based on how he is breaking his opponents down, same could happen in this fight as well, where Spence either with his piston-like jab or right hooks could hurt Crawford’s eye leading to the fight being stopped.
2. Spence is a great and relentless body puncher and could stop Crawford with one of those vicious body shots.
3. You could also see Crawford catching Spence with one of those uppercuts in the exchanges and knocking him out and getting a KO victory and continuing his vicious KO streak in the welterweight division.
4. You could also see Crawford dropping Spence on multiple occasions making it a multiple 10-8 rounds in his favour leading to a UD victory.
5. Spence walking Crawford down, being too strong and making it a total one-sided UD victory for Spence is another possible outcome but highly unlikely though.

The fact that there are so many different ways this fight could go is what makes this fight so appealing to the fans and gets the fan so divided on the outcome.

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Lastly, I want this fight to be remembered for all right reasons and not to be remembered for the controversial decision from officials. It’s high time officials start judging fights fairly irrespective of who is the cash cow or who holds more belts, none of that matter when 2 equally skilled fighters fight, if a guy dictates a fight, lands more clean shots, hurts his opponent, gets hit less, that fighter should be awarded the decision without a doubt.