Bob Arum has long thought Terence Crawford would beat Errol Spence Jr.

The 91-year-old promoter’s opinion hasn’t changed now that his company, Top Rank Inc., no longer represents Crawford. Arum predicted Crawford will not only defeat Spence on July 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but that the unbeaten three-division champion will stop Spence at some point later in their 12-round welterweight title unification fight.

“I think he has more tools by far than Spence, who’s the naturally bigger guy,” Arum told BoxingScene.com. “But I think Terence’s ability to fight with either hand is a big, big plus in boxing. Crawford’s performances were always spectacular, even though it didn’t appear so because his skills were so much above anyone that he was fighting. But he’s the goods. And I say this even though we don’t promote him anymore. But he’s still Terence Crawford and he’s a tremendous fighter.”

Arum expects Spence to make their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event competitive in the first half of it. Then, however, the International Boxing Hall of Fame promoter thinks Crawford will take complete control of a fascinating fight fans have wanted to see for five years.

“He’ll stop Spence later in the fight,” Arum said, “because he’ll be experimenting with both hands, both as an orthodox fighter and as a southpaw, and he’s equally good fighting either way. If Spence is able to match him, which I expect when he fights orthodox, he’ll switch up to southpaw, and I don’t think Spence has an answer for it.”

Spence has not been down during his 10-year, 28-fight professional career, but Crawford has beaten each of his seven opponents in the welterweight division either by knockout or technical knockout.

Crawford filed a lawsuit against Top Rank in January 2022, less than two months after their contract expired, in which he alleged racial bias against Arum and sought damages in excess of $5.4 million. Arum lambasted Crawford, whom his company promoted for approximately 10 years, after the lawsuit was filed, but Crawford has since attended boxing cards Top Rank has promoted.

Most sportsbooks have made Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, a slight favorite to beat Spence (28-0, 22 KOs), of DeSoto, Texas, in their fight for Spence’s IBF, WBA and WBC welterweight titles and Crawford’s WBO belt. Unless their highly anticipated showdown results in a draw or a no-contest, Crawford, 36, or Spence, 33, will be crowned boxing’s first fully unified champion in the 147-pound division during boxing’s four-belt era.

Spence-Crawford will headline a four-fight pay-per-view show scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.