Putting Crawford's Domination & Stoppage of Errol Spence Jr. Into Its Proper Perspective.

Great post i missed it with all the rush & i didn't know about those rumors of him being knocked down in sparring either.

 

Claiming you knew it all along after the fact has never been done before, I'm sure.

 

Funny i didn't see any type of accusations thrown around in the media or on YT this past weekend about either Crawford/Spence being on PED's after Crawford's sublime performance but can count how many were posted live on Inoue being a cheat, guess it only applies to Asian fighters haha.

 

Always enjoy your writing even when it’s not boxing as NOT too many people put in research or facts like you do.

 

Big facts.

They showed Crawford wrapping his hands in the same way Inoue does it (tape on skin), yet the certain segment of fans had not a single thing to say.

 

Spence was also drained to death.

 

Anybody who has a pair of eyeballs knows that Beterbiev/Gvozdyk are better than Spence, but the casuals have no idea because Spence is American and Beterbiev/Gvozdyk aren't. That's really all there is to that.

 

Crawdad beat a bigger, younger, top five (on many lists) PFP champion, and he did it in dominant fashion. Maybe the people who put together PFP rankings were unaware Spence was in a car accident and was less active in recent years? On many PFP lists, these two were very closely ranked and Spence was usually in the top five. Many top pros picked Spence to win and the betting line was pretty close.

It’s easy to make predictions after the fact (Yogi Berra?) and revisionist history is a lot of fun. Bottom line is this was a close fight on paper. Crawford stepped up and put all doubt to rest regarding who was the better fighter, at least on that night. Spence is a major scalp on Crawford’s resume and Earl will have a shot at appearing on that resume in two weight classes.

The beating Crawford put on Spence was historic. It wasn’t an Andy Ruiz one punch stunner, he dismantled the younger bigger man and dominated until the ref called it quits. Many people wanted to see it ended sooner because Spence was taking major punishment. I’m glad Crawford took the decision out of the hands of crooked boxing judges and suspect he will do the same at 154 or at least try to do so.

Bud closed the show like a the PFP king he is against his toughest opponent. He eliminated all doubt and earned the top spot.

 

Most of those lists were comprised by casuals who couldn't tell you who Kenshiro Teraji is and/or people who had a vested interest in bigging up Spence to help sell the fight. Spence was never one of the ten best fighters regardless of weight, regardless of what ex-fighters say who have their own agendas (Porter). He is/was a very good welterweight with obvious flaws that Crawford's skillset were going to easily exploit.

What revisionist history? The OP has been saying Bud smokes Spence for years. So has Serge. I can point you to multiple boxing YouTube channels that maintained Spence getting brutally stopped was a matter of time. Hell, I recently bumped a year-old thread to take a victory lap (a very mature and dignified one I assure you) where I said Crawford stops Spence in 10 or less, and I'm no deep dive analyst like others. Spence is a very good, possibly great fighter at ONE weight-class that wasn't exactly fielding a who's-who of future Hall of Famers or pound-for-pound fighters. He was always going to get the **** kicked out of him, did get the **** kicked out of him, and Bud deserves flowers for showing the gulf between him and other welterweights, but that's all he did.

Nothing about this is incorrect or wrong. It also doesn't exactly help your case of Spence being a real pound for pound fighter and not an artificial one.

Your toughest opponent is determined by how much trouble they give you in the fight, not prematch narratives and commercials. People claimed Fulton would be Inoue's toughest fight, but he wasn't even as tough as his fourth fight ever against Taiguchi (less than a year in Inoue's career) let alone the first Donaire fight (which was not nearly as close as some people like to claim, if we want to discuss revisionist history). Gamboa was a tougher fight for Crawford than Spence, and that's just a simple fact.

 

PFP lists are made by casuals? Most PFP lists are made by boxing correspondents who cover the sport. I disagree with many but they are far from casuals. Spence was considered by many experts a PFP fighter. Guys on boxing sites have crazy opinions on most fighters. Some thought Canelo could beat a legit cruiser, some argue in favor of notably bad decisions, etc. It doesn’t change reality. This was arguably the biggest matchup between two top fighters and one dominated the other.

Spence was an easy fight because Crawford made it look easy. Are you guys taking points away from him for being so dominant? That’s what PFP fighters are supposed to do.

Diminishing Crawford’s achievement by downplaying his opponent is too common around here and on boxing sites. The OP was not a Spence fan and that’s cool. I was just saying Spence was a legit top fighter and this historic victory should be regarded as such. You can disagree and find other people on Internet forums who disagree. I can show you people on forums who are certain the world is flat and that space aliens walk among us. It doesn’t mean they are right.

 

"Casuals or people with a vested interest." Many of those correspondents have their own reason for overrating Spence. Some because they themselves didn't think much of Crawford. Some because they want access with interviews and press passes that come with being a good little hype man. And some may have just genuinely overrated Spence and just got a little too excited for the prospect of having a fight of the magnitude of Mayweather/Pacquiao, or at least the closest thing they could get to it. 'Boxing Correspondents' is a meaningless title when Mike Coppinger is paid to talk boxing, and Fight Hype's Sean Zittel openly speculated without a shred of evidence that Inoue was an arrogant drug cheat, Spare me having to take the likes of them seriously.

Except when the opinion is proven correct, you don't get to call it crazy. And many of those same 'experts' were very much talking about Canelo going up to cruiserweight and winning, while it was the people on boxing forums who were rolling their eyes at the whole endeavor.

Boxing correspondents often sing the praises of terrible scorecards as much as fans do (this past weekend Isaac Cruz was being sucked off by the announce team in a fight he arguably lost and were shocked at the split-decision) so I'm not exactly sure what your point is. That the people paid to talk boxing are just as bad/fickle at it as the people who do it for free? Because if so no argument.

This was a big fight between the two best welterweights in the world, one who was rightfully considered pound-for-pound great, the other had built enough cache with a wider fanbase through great managing that people artificially inflated his skillset to pound-for-pound. It's not the first or last time it will happen.

I called Crawford one of the two best fighters in the world after that and anyone who ranked him #1 ahead of Inoue would get no argument from me. It's his third weight class where he became undisputed for a second time when the powers that be actively TRIED TO KEEP HIM FROM DOING IT. That alone means he gets all the credit. But that doesn't mean I have to ignore what my eyes told me for years about Spence's flaws that played right into Bud's hands, along with Spence abusing his own body for years with his party-hard lifestyle and multiple car wrecks (some of which weren't his fault in the slightest, but the fact that it is MULTIPLE...). This win didn't make Crawford an all-timer, it's just the sweet icing on top of a body of work that already did that.

No one diminished his achievement, so your whole point about "earth is flat" comparisons falls...well flat. He beat a very good welterweight that established himself from the pack. However, it wasn't a very good pack to begin with and he had obvious flaws in his game. They all shamelessly ran from Crawford, and one by one he demonstrated exactly why they all pissed their pants in fear. A much more balanced take than Spence hearing every day from both pundits and peers about how he "HITS LIKE A HEAVYWEIGHT!" despite not once hurting Mikey Garcia.