By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is choosing his former fighter Terence Crawford to defeat Errol Spence Jr when they fight for the undisputed welterweight championship on November 19 in Las Vegas.
Arum says he feels the 35-year-old Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) is a better fighter than IBF, WBA and WBC 147-pound champion Spence (28-0, 22 KOs). He is going to end badly for the elder Crawford, who has not fought since 2021. He has been very active in recent years.
Interestingly, Arum didn’t say anything about Crawford’s advancing age and the weak opposition he’s faced since moving up to 147.
The only marginally decent fighter the Omaha, Nebraska native has fought since moving up to welterweight was his main goalie Shawn Porter, and he had a lot of trouble beating him.
Yordenis Ugas arguably did a better job against Porter and of course Spence beat him by fighting his own fight by fighting him on the inside in 2019.
If Spence had boxed Porter like Ugas did, he probably would have beaten him by a 12-round one-sided decision the same way he did. For fans who remember, Ugas was robbed of a decision against Porter as he appeared to beat him by a score of 10-2.
“Just because our contract with Terence is up doesn’t mean my views on the fight have changed,” Bob Arum told Fighthype about the fight between Spence and Terence Crawford on Nov. 19.
“I really think Terence is the better fighter and he will beat Spence when they fight, although I expect it to be a tremendous fight. That remains to be seen,” Arum said when asked if Spence-Crawford will be at the level of the 1980s fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns.
‘Hearns-Leonard, now looking at that fight as a fully baked cake. After the fights, we saw what happens. East [Spence vs. Crawford] has the makings of one of those fights. Whether it really turns out to be will depend on the fight itself.
“The way these guys fight, either one of them is talented enough and has the ability to knock the other out. If you ask me, ‘I think the fight will end by knockout,’ I don’t think so. I think it will be a very close fight that will end in a decision,” Arum said of his thoughts on Errol Spence fighting Terence Crawford.
