Reigning trainer of the year Derrick James is not bothered by Terence Crawford’s power and the potential damage it could present to his pupil Errol Spence Jr. ahead of the July 29 super fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Showtime pay-per-view.

The three-division champion Crawford’s (39-0, 30 KOs) power has carried across weight classes. Crawford is riding a streak of 10 straight stoppage wins and has stopped 13 out of his last 14 dating back to 2015.

Crawford and Spence as well as Crawford trainer Brian McIntyre have mostly kept the pre-fight promotion cordial and respectful, but when James was asked if Crawford’s propensity for knockouts could present Spence problems, the former fighter-turned-coach denounced the Nebraska native’s resume instead. 

“Who the f--- he fought, man? Whatchu talking about, man? Who he fought?” James told BoxingScene.com in an interview. 

“Who were those guys [that he knocked out]? Everybody can punch. It's easier to beat guys that are lesser. That doesn't mean anything. He's fighting guys who can't, you know what I mean?” 

Crawford – a former undisputed champion at 140 pounds – has had stoppage wins against Porter and Brook at 147 pounds after Spence had already beaten them. Crawford has also crushed the likes of Jeff Horn, Jose Benavidez Jr., Amir Khan, Egidijus, Kavaliauskas, and David Avanesyan at welterweight. 

Spence certainly has a stronger resume than Crawford. His wins as a welterweight have come against the likes of Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Yordenis Ugas, Carlos Ocampo, Lamont Peterson, and Kell Brook.

Spence and Crawford also separately graded each other across a menu of attributes that included footwork, defense, power, speed, punch resistance, conditioning, ring IQ, and resume. 

Spence gave Crawford's resume a score of 0.5, while Crawford gave Spence’s resume a score of 7.

Overall, after all of the scores were tallied, Spence rated Crawford a 5.4 and Crawford rated Spence a 7.0.

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.