LAS VEGAS — On paper it should have and could have been a boxing classic.
But they didn’t fight on paper.
The sports books made it 3-2, Terence Crawford over Errol Spence. That’s as close to pick ‘em as you can get in Vegas-speak.
But they didn’t fight in the sports books.
And so, despite all each man had achieved in the past and all the evidence that seemed to dictate a once-in-a lifetime welterweight classic, Crawford turned Saturday night’s welterweight unification bout at T Mobile Arena into a textbook clinic. Spence was beaten and battered and never had the slightest chance to land any of the ferocious punches that had established him as the owner of three world championship belts.
He was dropped three times before referee, Harvey Dock, mercifully halted it at 2:52 of the ninth round. His right eye was almost closed, his left was badly swollen, and face was badly bruised, and for the length of the fight following a second-round knockdown, he was finished.
It wasn’t a case of lightning and thunder that marked him so badly.
It was the most overlooked boxing tool of all — one that was not mentioned much in the pre-fight analysis. Boxing purists properly refer to the jab as the sharpest tool in a boxer’s arsenal. Crawford unleashed it as key to victory. Spence ignored it in search of a quick victory, relying on sledgehammer power. He immediately went after Crawford at the opening bell.
He won the round on The Star-Ledger scorecard, but it was a pyrric victory. Before the round ended, Crawford had figured out how Spence would come and what he would use. It is called Boxing IQ. Only the very best have it. It was how Tunney beat Dempsey, how Ali beat Foreman, how James J. Corbett beat John L. Sullivan. Today, few fighters have it: the ability to adapt to any situation no matter how much or little change is required.
Once Crawford saw how Spence used his power to try to bulldoze him and once felt the power itself, he did what great boxers with great boxing IQ always do. He turned it against Spence with angles and movement and a jab that was not only radar-accurate but turned out to be the power punch of the fight. The jab sets up all else, but this one was so effective and powerful it stung and made what follows a setup for everything on Crawford’s menu.
In round two, Spence tried to make a brawl of it and went toe to toe with Crawford in mid-ring, and Spence appeared as though he might be getting the kind of fight for which he had planned. But he was in with a master illusionist.
After the fight was over, Crawford said something that lent perspective to what happened. “
“Spence is a tremendous talent and he’s got a great jab. We were worried about the jab coming in because that’s how he sets up all of his shots,” Crawford said. “Our main focus was the jab. You take away his best attribute. The rest is history.”
Or as you hear from great trainers when they plan for a major fight with these conditions: “The way to beat a jabber is with a better jab.”
Spence did not fight a bad fight. Crawford fought better . He owned the geography of the ring, beginning with second round, which produced the first of three knockdowns. With 20 seconds left in the round, Crawford got the angle he wanted. The jab gave him the opening. It set him up and the right hand that followed put Spence down for first time in his entire career.
“He was just better tonight,” Spence said. “I make no excuses. He was throwing a harder jab. He was timing with his jab, and he had his timing down on point.”
It was no contest after that. Spence kept coming and he kept catching jabs, sometimes two or three in a sequence. In the seventh round, he was clearly a finished fighter. Crawford dropped him twice, with a short right and with another right with just a second left.
After another one-sided round in the eight, it was no longer a question of if, but when. A round later, it was over. It was not the fight of the century. But it was the clinic of the decade given by a master.
Crawford (40-0, 31 knockouts) already owned the WBO belt, and took the WBC, WBA and IBF titles from Spence (28-1). Crawford also ran his KO streak to 11 matches, the second-longest active stretch.
“I only dreamed of being a world champion,” Crawford said. “I’m an over-achiever. Nobody believed in me when I was coming up, but I made everybody a believer.
NBA star Damian Lillard and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones were at T-Mobile Arena. They were among the celebrities that included former boxing champions such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
They watched a clinic they would’ve been proud to execute themselves, and now the man with the best Boxing IQ is now 40-0.
