It’s less than three weeks away now. The highly-anticipated welterweight title unification blockbuster between IBF/WBA/WBC 147 lb. champ Errol Spence Jr. and WBO champ Terence Crawford is finally going to happen on July 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, atop a Showtime PPV/Premier Boxing Champion event.
While fans and media have been talking up the intricacies of this bout and debating the possible outcomes, boxing insiders, fighters, and trainers have been doing the same.
One such person is renowned trainer Stephen “Breadman” Edwards, who had a thing or two to say about this mega-fight when asked for comment.
“Crawford doesn’t have a lot of holes in his armor,” Edwards told Boxingscene.com. “One thing I was able to see in his fight with Shawn [Porter] and Kell [Brook] is that, for some reason, Terence is a little bit of a slow starter. They were able to get a lot done in the early rounds. So, I would really be conscious of that. [Terence] is one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen. The one thing about him is if you can get to him early before he adjusts.
“With Errol, he’s a snowball fighter who, once he gets his rhythm, comes forward and can walk you down behind that southpaw jab. One thing I would be worried about in this fight is letting Errol get his rhythm and establish that hard southpaw jab. That’s the first thing I would address if I was in Terence’s corner.”
“I think it’s a 50-50 fight. Errol does things in a subtle way. Against Mikey Garcia he fought a conservative fight and literally won every round. He got criticism for it because he didn’t knock the smaller man out. But he totally undressed him and outboxed him, so he does have that in his game and it could show up that night of the fight. Sometimes those guys need that special opponent in front of them to bring out what they really are because they don’t really show all of their stuff against the lesser guys.”
As for choosing one man over the other, Edwards is still not quite ready to make his pick. The fight is THAT close.
“I don’t have a pick right now,” Edwards said. “That’s the honest truth. I think we’re going to have the Fight of the Century. I wouldn’t be surprised if both guys hit the canvas. It’s so close and so many little things in the gym matter. I’m objective and have relationships with both teams. I really don’t have a pick right now. I just think it’s going to be a great fight.”
The 33-year-old Spence comes into this big fight with a record of 28-0 with 22 KOs. Most rankings list the native of Desoto, Texas as no. 1 in the welterweight division at the moment. Victories over Kell Brook, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, and, most recently, Yordenis Ugas have cemented his position as top dog of the 147 lb. class.
Crawford, 35, has a 39-0 record with 30 KOs. A former lightweight world champ and unified 4-belt junior welterweight champ, the native of Omaha, Nebraska also sports a reputation of being one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. At welterweight, Crawford captured the WBO title against Jeff Horn in June of 2018 and has defended it six times since then, with high-water mark defenses coming against Shawn Porter, Amir Khan, and Kell Brook.
For either fighter, a win on July 29 will make them THE man at welterweight, and the undisputed king of the division in the post-Floyd Mayweather era.
