The world awaits official confirmation that an undisputed welterweight unification between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence is on the way, but with all signs pointing that way, many in the boxing world are giving their thoughts on the matchup. Here we have former junior middleweight champion Sadam Ali, who has some prior experience against Crawford and shares how he sees the fight.
“Spence is a great fighter,” Ali said. “Spence is amazing, but so is Crawford. It is very difficult to choose, but he could choose. I, personally, will lean a bit towards Crawford. If I go 55-45, I give 55 to Terence Crawford. They both have the power, they both have the heart, I feel like Terence is a little more skilled. And I feel like that’s the only advantage he can have.”
Then, when asked if he could see Crawford scoring a stoppage over Spence to claim all the belts, Ali didn’t want to take any chances.
“That is taking it too far. In boxing, anything is possible, but I can’t sit here and say someone is going to stop Spence, honestly. But I mean if there’s a lucky break that lands unexpectedly, that the fighter doesn’t see, either one of them can get knocked out. Anyone in this world can, if that perfect (punch) lands), but no. In my opinion, I don’t see Spence getting stopped, I don’t see Crawford getting stopped. I see a great fight.”
Ali was then asked to give Spence some advice as someone who has shared the ring with Crawford in the past.
“When I beat Crawford (in the amateurs), I’ll be honest with you, it was a competitive fight the whole time, but he may have gotten tired, I don’t know. Maybe Terence wasn’t going as hard as he should in the amateurs, but I mean he was almost winning everything. But still, I feel like I wanted him more in that last round. He was down a point going into the last round and I ended up winning by four or five points.
“I really can’t give advice to anyone because Terence Crawford is a completely different type of fighter right now…what Terence has done now is very different. I can’t say that he has the same style in amateurs, so I can’t really give advice on beating him. All I can say is that to beat Crawford you have to give your best.”
