By: Sean Crose
“There will be greatness July 29th that you guys will witness,” WBO welterweight titlist Terence Crawford said at a Los Angeles press conference Tuesday to promote his upcoming superbout with WBC, WBA, and IBF titlist Errol Spence. “We measure greatness by eras,” Crawford continued. “We had the Sugar Ray Robinson era, we had the Ali era, the Marvin Hagler’s, the Tommy Hearn’s, we even had the Floyd Mayweather era, but July 29th I’m going to show each and every one of you why this is the Terence Crawford era.”
“He calls himself the big fish,” Crawford concluded, referencing Spence, “but what you do when the fish gets took out the water? He suffocates.”
Spence, who might actually be more easygoing than the normally laid back Crawford, took to the mic next. “This is the biggest fight in boxing right now,” he said. “This is a legendary fight. This is definitely an old school fight. This is the fight that my dad used to talk to me about, and the older people tell me about, where you had sugar Sugar Ray Leonard versus Tommy Hearns, you had Duran and all them, you had De La Hoya-Trinidad fighting, you had the best fighting the best. And finally, we’re at this point where me and Terence Crawford had to get on the phone and talk about it, and now it’s finally happening.”
Spence not only sees the fight with Crawford being for welterweight dominance. He made it clear Tuesday he feels the winner will be the clear pound for pound best in all boxing. “It’s going to prove not only the best welterweight in the world,” he said, “its going to prove who the best fighter in the world is. You know my mentality. It’s to win. Its to go all out and give it everything. His mentality is the same thing. So I want everyone to tune in July 29th. Come to the fight, we’re going to have a crawfish bowl…there’s going to be enough for everybody, I promise you that.”
Fans have long been waiting for Spence and Crawford to square off in the ring. Now that the fight has finally been made, the answer as to who is the better fighter will finally be answered in just a matter of weeks. This is indeed a big match – two men, undefeated and lauded, battling for supremacy in one of the sport’s most popular and historic divisions.
