Terence Crawford absolutely dominated Errol Spence Jr tonight in Las Vegas, dropping Spence three times en route to a ninth round stoppage.
With the win, Crawford (40-0, 31 KO) is now the undisputed welterweight champion of the world.
Spence (28-1, 22 KO) was down in the second round, then twice in the seventh round. Crawford continued to pour on the pressure until referee Harvey Dock stopped the bout at 2:32 of round nine.
Crawford was really in complete control starting in the second round of this fight, punishing Spence with a hard, steady jab, and seemingly landing uppercuts and hooks almost at will, countering magnificently, and Spence just never got anything going in the fight.
It should be said that Spence did not fold in this fight. He was trying to the end, but referee Harvey Dock made a tough but very fair call to stop this fight, because it was one-sided.
“I only dreamed of being a world champion. I’m an over-achiever. Nobody believed in me when I was coming up,” Crawford said, and he also thanked Spence and his team for taking the fight and giving him this opportunity.
“It means everything because of who I took the belts from. They tried to blackball me, they kept me out, they talked bad about me, they said I wasn’t good enough, they said I couldn’t beat these top welterweights. I just kept my head to the sky and praying I’d get the opportunity to show the world how great Terence Crawford is. Tonight, I believe I showed everyone.”
“He’s a tremendous talent, he’s got a great jab,” Crawford added. “We were worried about the jab coming in. Our main focus was the jab. You take away his best attribute.”
On his own effectiveness with the jab, Crawford said, “We normally do a flicking jab, but we knew that wouldn’t work on Errol Spence. We had to focus on a strong, firm jab to stop him in his tracks.”
Crawford was also asked about the rematch clause.
“The public will buy it. Look how many people came out and showed us support,” Crawford said. “If it happens again, I’m pretty sure everyone will come out again and show support for us.”
The winner — Crawford — has the right to dictate terms for the weight and everything. It had been reported that if Spence won, he would do the rematch at 154 lbs, and it’s entirely possible he’ll go to 154 anyway, and maybe not do a rematch with Crawford. But the money may be too much to pass up, and if Crawford will do it at 154, Spence surely would take it.
Spence came over and congratulated Crawford after his interview, then also spoke with Showtime’s Jim Gray.
“He was a better man tonight. He was using his jab, my timing was a little bit off, and he was catching me in between shots,” he said. “He was just better tonight. I make no excuses. He did his thing. He was the better man tonight.
“He was just throwing a harder jab, timing with his jab. He had his timing on point. I wasn’t surprised by his speed and accuracy. It was everything I thought, it was just my timing wasn’t on-point.”
Spence indicated that he does want the rematch.
“Hell yeah we gotta do it again. I’m gonna be a lot better. It’s probably going to be in December before the end of the year. We’ve gotta do it again.”
Spence said the rematch will “hopefully” take place at 154.
We’ll have much more on Spence vs Crawford in the coming hours, so stick with us at Bad Left Hook!