Spence WEIGHT DRAINED EXCUSE | Tank Wants SMOKE

After Terence Crawford’s great success in the anticipated match against Errol Spence, Gervonta Davis claimed he would knock out Crawford by the sixth round. To bring a little validity to Davis’ claim, a man who has sparred both fighters, Brian Norman Jr., believes Tank has more single punch power. Now, does Tank not have boxing IQ to compete with Crawford? However, Crawford’s size is likely a great difference maker.

But now let’s talk about a more realistic match-up, that is, the rematch between Crawford and Spence. Let’s analyze different elements of the rematch.

ShowBizz’ Take: On the night of the fight last Saturday, Crawford was the better fighter who had the better preparation. ShowBizz cannot quantify how much of result of the match was due to Spence being weight drained or Crawford exposing Spence’s flaws. It’s similar to Mayweather vs. Canelo. That match was at a catchweight and Canelo was not at his best. However, that was not the best Mayweather either. Mayweather was at an older age/stage of his career. All we know is that on that fight night, Mayweather dominated Canelo. With this line of reasoning in consideration, one can say that a not 100% (nobody comes in the ring 100%) Crawford outperformed the welterweight Spence on fight night.

There are no excuses regarding the outcome of their first fight, but what if Spence was weight drained? Anthony Joshua commented that that was not the Spence he knows. That from a performance point of view, if there’s an improved preparation for the fight, a much tougher fight can occur. Joshua is worth listening to because he is closer to the situation than the general public.

During Spence’s media workout prior to the fight, he looked good but he was likely weighing significantly over the welterweight limit. ‘BoMac’, the trainer of Crawford, stated that is not their fault if Spence was weight drained because that is the weight he signed up for. He did not dismiss the possibility that Spence was in fact weight drained.

History Lesson: Roberto Duran was not himself in the “No Más Fight” because he was not well-prepared for that fight. Duran was partying in New York prior to the fight when they called him that he had to fight Sugar Ray Leonard in a few weeks. His fight camp was more about losing weight than actually being prepared for the fight. In addition, Leonard was more of a moving target than he was in their first match. If Duran was better prepared, he could have better performed against that style that Leonard presented. Given this context to this fight, it was not only Leonard’s fight plan that brought about the “No Más” result, it was also due to the fact that Duran was weight drained. Would Leonard had beat Duran anyway? Probably, Leonard is a great fighter but the fight outcome probably also would not have been as extreme.

In order for the rematch between Crawford and Spence to gather interest, there needs to be an explanation why the rematch at 154 pounds will be a different fight. Else, as boxing fans, we have to complain about the rematch.