Is Crawford vs Spence A Top 5 ATG Performance At 147?

hmm.. what?

 

Hard to say where I would place it, but in the conversation for top 5 imo. The clear top fighters in a fairly strong era and one absolutely dominated the other. That's not very common.

 

That fight was an anti-climax to the Nth degree. They just went through the motions clearly with the understanding nobody needed to get badly banged up on the way to the pot of gold (180 and 120M!!). Can't really blame them at that point after the years of delay putting them past their primes (particularly Manny) at 38 and 36 years old. The whole drawn out affair only to have them waltz to a totally forgettable lopsided decision. I don't think I've ever heard / seen that fight referenced again in the 10+ years since, but if it had happened six years earlier in '09 as it was supposed to, we might be talking about it in the same breath as Duran-Leonard 1.

 

It's fine as top 5 or 10 considering how great of a performance Crawford turned in. Cuevas is getting wildly overrated in this thread.

 

Strictly from a name and importance at the time point of view I won't argue with it qualifying for the top ten. However, Spence was so noticeably not himself from before he even entered the ring that it takes a bit of the luster off of Crawford's win. Don't get me wrong, Bud's performance was immaculate. He was calculated and brutal. It's just that he was not fighting someone even remotely near the top of his game.

For me, that makes it hard to consider it a top ten performance.

 

Spence did beat Danny Garcia after the accident rather easily.

 

That's why I don't think the car crash was the reason for his performance against Crawford. He was severely weight drained and it was also reported that he suffered a rib injury in camp and was only able to do sparring against Derrick James.

 

He was also fighting Terrance Crawford at his peak.

 

True.... but Crawford looked human against Porter, Benavidez, and Mean Machine. Crawford's win had more to do with diminish versions of Spence and Canelo than his ability. I also can't forget SNAC and his affiliation with Victor Conte

 

Butthurt in prose.

Crawford dominated all of his biggest fights (Postol, Crawford, and to a lesser extent Canelo). He’s the best since Floyd and it doesn’t figure to change anytime soon.

 

Mmmmmmm idk. P4P I don't know how he would do against the likes of Shakur, Tank, Loma, Inoue, or Usyk. Hell, even Fundora, Virgil, amd Ennis would be the best fighters he ever faced prime for prime. I think we are placing too much value on his wins against Canelo and Spence

 

Crawford was the only fighter to stop Porter. He fought Spence before the accident and alot of other big names at 147.

 

Porter was contemplating retirement prior to the fight, and I never saw what was special about him. I will never get over that robbery against Ugas

 

Crawford was contemplating retirement before fighting Canelo.

 

Before the fight, several people (myself included) were certain Spence would win. Spence was a terrifying welterweight in his prime: power, technique, durability, ferocious body puncher, an elite jab, quick reflexes. He completely dismantled boxers of various styles and made adjustment mid-fight and always got better.

Yes, the car crash happened. Yes, he had inactivity/ring rust and lost some of his athleticism. This doesn't change the fact Spence was an undefeated, unified champion with multiple title defenses who had beaten the breaks off of Danny Garcia and Ugas. Crawford didn't just win convincingly, he had a somewhat close first round, then figured out the timing and rhythm of Spence and proceeded to dismantle him in one of the most one-sided beat downs in unification history. After a certain point, you just felt bad for Spence, but he showed a lot of heart getting up and continuing while looking like a train wreck.

Crawford himself predicted people would immediately downplay the win...which is exactly what people are doing in this thread.

It's a top 5 win for sure, especially in terms of pure dominance.