So I finally watched the fight. I didn't have a dog in this fight because I felt both guys avoided it for too long. I would say a few years ago I was more of a Spence Jr. fan because he was a banger. In general I like fighters who are aggressive, punch to the body, and wear their opponents down. Crawford is more of a puncher boxer, does a mix of defense and punching. His style hasn't been as exciting for me to watch. I thought it would be more competitive, but when I heard Crawford knocked Spence down 3 times and stopped him in round 9 I kind of expected that he put together a defensive masterclass or that Spence Jr might have been weight drained. I was expecting to be looking into a tactical fight and breakdown reasons Bud had a tactical advantage and maybe areas Spence Jr kind of messed up tactically.. Actually I was kind of shocked to watched the fight and Spence Jr. looked the same. Went in there and did his thing and tried to bully and grind Bud down. Yeah Bud had a superior defense, but he was still getting hit a lot. It's not like he shut Spence down and made him miss. In many of the sequences I saw both guys getting hit. What kind of surprised me was that Bud wasn't phased, like at all, and Spence Jr. just got busted up. Yeah, Bud is just tougher. This fight wouldn't change at 154, and there isn't any tactical thing Spence Jr. can change because he will just get beat up. Crawford is just the superior man all around.
No..... Crawford won because he has the perfect combination of athleticism, skills, and power. Crawford is just on another level.
Spence just did not have any defence at all either to try and even cope with Crawford. It’s a hard thing to pin down maybe lack of confidence etc or sort of a sixth sense thing but Bud had that look like he wanted to win but I could not see that in Spence .
your first mistake is thinking bud would duck any fighter. Crawford is a true throwback from that murders row era.
Crawford won because there was not a single moment in his life where Spence was on his level, let alone after a lifestyle of hard liquor partying, car wrecks, and detached retinas robbing him of punch resistance (that and the hard weight cuts that his lifestyle did no favors for). Textbook "Big Man Boxing For Dummies" style that was entirely dependant on feather fists and career 140-or-less pounders wilting under pressure from a distance they couldn't effectively fire back; one-dimensional to the extreme going against a very skilled switch hitter with a longer reach, better jab, and greater physical strength from a wrestling background. At no point would Spence be able to touch Crawford without being touched back - quite the opposite, in fact - nor was he strong enough to bully him on the inside, or even effectively use the clinch to cut off Crawford's vicious inside attack. He was always going to get beaten up. His own poor lifestyle choices made it worse than it already would have been, which was still pretty bad.
He was stronger and tougher. Seemed to be better than Spence was at anything related to boxing. Just a way better fighter.
It was helped by the fact Spence was drained to ****. The last three fights he’s shown vulnerability to punches - I suspect it has a lot to do with looking like a fragile skeleton. Compare the bulkier full Spence from the Brook fight to his against Crawford. Let’s also not pretend that this fight isn’t overdue by 3-4 years