By: Sean Crose
“This is one you’re going to talk about to your grandkids,” WBA, WBC and IBF welterweight world titlist Errol Spence says in regard to this Saturday’s superfight with WBO welterweight world titlist Terence Crawford. Although he’s a Texan, Spence has spent the past several weeks in Las Vegas, dealing with the publicity and with not being around his family, all while preparing to meet Crawford on the 29th. “It comes with the territory,” Spence says of the sacrifices that have had to be made. “This is what it takes to be great.”
Still, greatness can be a lonely thing. “This is the longest I’ve been without my two girls,” he admits. It all may well be enough to make a fighter surly. What’s truly given Spence an edge, however, is the fact that he has to make sure he comes in at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds for Friday’s weigh in. “Making weight made me meaner,” he says. One thing is for certain, Spence is losing patience with those who have taken to doubting him in the lead up to Saturday’s bout, like the heckler who called him “goldfish” while he was conducting an interview with Showtime.
“The main thing is I just want to shut people up,” he says. “We’re definitely going to have crawfish boil,” he adds in a sly reference to Crawford. “We’re going to cook him up real good.” Although Spence isn’t sure the fight will be an all out brawl at the sound of the opening bell, he’s still expecting a great match to go down this weekend. “I’m not sure you’re going to see toe to toe action straight off the bat,” he admits, “but you’re definitely doing to see a great fight…it’s definitely going to be an action packed fight on both sides.”