By: Sean Crose
“The wait is over. It’s game time. Errol Spence. Terence Crawford. July 29th, Las Vegas, Nevada. Everybody come out to show support and watch me fry this fish.”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsrHsuMM2fY/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D
So says WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford in an Instagram video posted Thursday. In other words, it’s official – Crawford will finally be facing WBC, WBA, and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence for the undisputed welterweight championship of the world. It took a long time – too long a time, truth be told. Now that the match has become a reality, however, there is much for fans to celebrate.
The truth is that both Crawford and Spence are regarded as two of the best fighters on the planet. Both men are undefeated and, with the exception of the essentially semi-retired Keith Thurman, have bested all of their peers. With a new and younger breed of contender coming up, this fight has clearly been made at the eleventh hour. Still, it’s good to see these two finally settling matters in the ring. Indeed, this tops off an excellent first half of 2023 for the sport of boxing.
Last month, Gervonta Davis bested the popular Ryan Garcia in a superfight that did super business on pay per view. Then, just last week, the supremely talented Devin Haney topped (albeit controversially) the great Vasly Lomachneko in a terrific battle of high skills and high octane. And now, finally, comes Crawford-Spence. Should Tyson Fury somehow get in the ring with Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship in 2023, a very good year in boxing will suddenly become a great one.
Indeed, 2023 may turn out to be a great year even without Fury and Usyk squaring off in the ring. Big fights are being made. Relevant ones. Popular ones. There’s a lot to like going on in the sport right now. On top of Crawford-Spence, for instance, the extraordinary Naoya Inoue will be answering the bell to face the razor sharp Stephen Fulton for bantamweight supremacy that same week in Japan.
It’s Crawford-Spence, however, that will truly be the main attraction among boxing’s fan base and quite possibly beyond. Both the 39-0 Crawford and the 28-0 Spence have no idea what defeat tastes like. They also know their legacies are on the line here – in one of the sport’s greatest divisions, no less. Lastly, each man has the ability to turn out the lights on the other. This one is highly anticipated for a reason. It will be good to finally see how it plays out.
“Finally giving the fans what they want!,” Spence declared on Instagram. “This one a throwback fight on paper but it could be a one sided ass whooping one of the biggest fight of the century !”
