Terence Crawford's two-word message to Errol Spence after dominant victory

30 July 2023 , 07:12

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Terence Crawford dominated Errol Spence Jr

Terence Crawford's immediate words for Errol Spence Jr after stopping him in their Las Vegas super-fight were simple and concise, telling his rival "great fight".

The welterweight duo made history with a massive event in Nevada last night, which saw Crawford crowned the undisputed 147lb champion and the first man to ever hold undisputed titles at two weights. Perhaps most remarkable of all was the performance, which saw the undersized fighter completely dominate his much bigger opponent, dropping him three times.

One key to the appeal of the bout was the lack of outlandish promotion from either side; with the pair even powering through rocky negotiations to make things happen. Crawford had even picked up the phone and called Spence personally as talks began to veer away from the fight taking place.

So the brief words of respect from Crawford after the fact were not surprising, with the new champion speaking highly of his rival in the post-fight press conference. "This meant everything to me," he explained after the fight. "I want to give honour to God for blessing me to be able to be here and to perform in front of each and every one of y'all.

"That's pretty much it, I wanted to thank Errol Spence and his team for me and him coming together and getting this fight underway. This is a fight that everybody wanted to see, the whole world was talking about it and we put on a great show... The winner out of this fight was going to be No.1 pound-for-pound hands down.

Errol Spence vs Terence Crawford negotiations indicated worrying trend in boxing

Terence Crawford knocks down Errol Spence (AP)

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"You got Errol Spence ranked No.4 pound-for-pound and you got Terence Crawford, I was ranked No.1. So you got two fighters that are in the top five pound-for-pound ratings, how can they not be No.1 pound-for-pound? We trained so hard in training camp that it may look easy in the ring but these fights are never easy."

Crawford at times made it look like a breeze, putting down Spence in round two before twice getting him down in the seventh. But he was facing one of the sport's top fighters, and admitted that it was not the handy fight that many pundits and fans may have thought.

"We put our body through the most during training camp and I worked my a** off to get to where I'm at today," Crawford added. "I even did things that were different this fight, we did a pre-camp, came out to Vegas, stayed for a month so I've been working for a long time for just this one moment - it's never easy."

Donagh Corby