The world waits for official confirmation that an undisputed welterweight unification between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence is on the way, but with all signs pointing in that direction many in the boxing world are giving their impressions of the matchup. Here we have former junior middleweight titleholder Sadam Ali who has some past experience against Crawford, and shares how he view the fight.
“Spence is a great fighter,” Ali said. “Spence is amazing, but so is Crawford. It’s really hard to choose but I could choose. Me, personally, I’m gonna lean towards Crawford a little bit. If I’m going 55-45, I’m giving the 55 to Terence Crawford. They both have the power, they both have the heart, I just feel like Terence is a little more slicker. And I feel like that’s the only edge he may have.”
Then when asked if he could see Crawford scoring a stoppage over Spence to claim all the belts, Ali didn’t want to go out on that limb.
“Now that’s taking it too far. In boxing anything’s possible but I can’t sit here and say Spence is going to get stopped by anybody, honestly. But I mean if there’s that one lucky punch that just lands unexpectedly, that the fighter doesn’t see, either one of them can get knocked out. Anybody in this world can, if that one perfect (punch) lands), but nah. 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’s shared the ring with Crawford in the past.
“When I beat Crawford (in the amateurs), I’m gonna be real with you, it was a competitive fight throughout the whole time but he might’ve got tired — I don’t know. Maybe Terence wasn’t going as hard as he should’ve in the amateurs, but I mean he was almost winning everything. But still, I feel like I wanted it more in that last round. I was down one point going into the last round and I ended up winning by like four to five points.
“I can’t really give anybody advice because Terence Crawford is a whole different kind of fighter right now…what Terence has done now is a lot different. I can’t say he has the same style in the amateurs so I can’t really give advice to beat him. All I can say is to beat Crawford you got to be at your best.”