Whenever we reflect on the 2023 welterweight superfight between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jnr, we tend to focus on how the fight ended rather than our feelings beforehand. That is to say, we picture Crawford with his arms raised in victory, and we picture Spence on the canvas, his dreams shattered and his face disfigured. We think only of the result: Crawford TKO 9 Spence. We think only of Crawford’s undeniable brilliance and how that display in Las Vegas set him on a path to greatness.
Yet surely to think in those terms – narrow, revisionist – does a disservice to both Crawford and the fight itself. It strips from the fight, in particular its original context, appeal, and beauty. It removes the uncertainty we all experienced going into it, as well as the excitement we felt knowing Crawford and Spence would at last be sharing a ring following years of circling one another. That, in retrospect, was what made the fight feel so special at the time. It was what had many trying to outdo one another with their pre-fight predictions, as though guessing correctly was a sign of intelligence. The truth is, though, nobody had a clue. Not really.
Both Crawford and Spence had been near-perfect in their respective careers to that point and had a combined professional record of 67-0. They were, back then, considered not only rivals but equals – flipsides of the same coin, Thing One and Thing Two. In Crawford, you had the genius technician with the sharp counters and one-shot power, while in Spence you had stamina and body-punching and an ability to keep pushing round after round. Combined, you had a bit of everything. They could do it all. But who could do it the best?
That Crawford would end up beating Spence in such a dominant fashion should not detract from how torn most of us were the night before. Many, quite understandably, were backing Spence to win and go on to become the new face of American boxing. In fact, during the week of the fight there was a growing sense that Spence was the slight favourite and that his greater punch output could be the deciding factor. Plenty of journalists covering the fight were making those kinds of noises, and so too were those around Spence. In hotel lobbies and along The Strip you would spot “Team Spence” T-shirts, worn by fans and team members alike. Even Spence himself was starting to get that feeling. That feeling of fate. That feeling of the time being right. That feeling of it being his time.
“It would mean a lot [to win],” said Spence at the Grand Arrivals that week. “It would be a dream come true. We watched the fights of all these great fighters, like [Oscar] De La Hoya versus [Felix] Trinidad, and now I get to have my moment. This is my moment now and I want to be under the bright lights and beat a worthy opponent; a guy who has been undisputed and is undefeated. That makes it even better when I defeat him on Saturday night.
“It’s definitely happening at the right time,” he added. “It has a lot of hype around it on social media and there are a lot of people talking about it. I would walk in stores before the fight was made and the first thing people would ask me was, ‘When are you and Terence going to fight?’ It’s happening at the right time. I’m in my prime. He’s in my prime. We are the two best fighters in the welterweight division and two of the best fighters in the world. Whoever wins on Saturday night will be the best fighter in boxing, period.”
As we now know, that man was Terence Crawford. He not only stopped Errol Spence in nine rounds, but made it look easy, so much so that everything that came before the fight was soon forgotten. Now these two were not so much rivals or equals as mere opponents; just one more name on a list. All the talk in the days prior regarding rematches, and a possible trilogy, was quick to dissipate in the aftermath. We had seen all we needed to see. Spence had endured enough. There was no need to put him through it again.
As for Crawford, he would have to wait a little longer to be crowned the “best fighter in boxing, period”. In fact, while many lauded his stoppage of Spence as the finest performance of that year, Crawford wouldn’t really build on it until a couple of years later.
In 2024, he stepped up a weight class to outpoint Israil Madrimov, but that, in truth, did little for his reputation and was closer than both Crawford would have wanted and many would have expected.
Then, however, Crawford made an even greater leap in 2025 – all the way to super middleweight – to challenge Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on Netflix. This, unlike the Spence fight, was a true superfight; one with the potential to transcend and attract casual sports fans and scrolling streamers bored on a Saturday night. Better yet, Crawford would grasp the moment and demonstrate to a wider audience what we in boxing had known for some time. Suddenly now everybody was talking about Terence “Bud” Crawford. Suddenly now, instead of being mistaken for Kendrick Lamar, he was being name-checked by the rapper in a song. Suddenly now there were strong arguments to be made that Crawford was indeed the “best fighter in boxing, period”.
Spence, meanwhile, just watched. Once Crawford’s equal, he was now a man two years out of the ring and a man whose irrelevance was increasing at the same rate as Crawford’s star was starting to soar. There were reasons for this, of course – injuries and whatnot – but the reality is, Crawford-Spence, for all its grandeur, had not been the Leonard-Hearns redux we all hoped it would be. After all, whereas both Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns went on to prove their greatness beyond and outside their famous rivalry, we had no sense of the same happening with Crawford and Spence. Or, rather, only one of the two appeared likely to go on and solidify their greatness.
Spence, on the other hand, was in danger of being best remembered for his one pro defeat – and final fight. It was somewhat cruel, too, given how impressive the Texan had looked before meeting Crawford, when defending his IBF welterweight title six times and beating the likes of Yordenis Ugas, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Mikey Garcia, and Kell Brook. We knew he could fight – and could recall the time when many predicted he would beat Terence Crawford – but it was hard, with the passing of time, not to forget him.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before people were using Spence’s prolonged silence to generate clicks and start rumours. In 2025, for instance, a boxing parody account posted to social media: “The former unified champ Errol Spence Jr. has sadly announced his retirement at the age of 34 years old after sustaining another injury to his eye in training. We wish Errol all the best.”
That led to many wishing Errol the best and both celebrating his career and lamenting his inability to recover from that Crawford loss in 2023. It also led to Spence creeping back into the spotlight, if only briefly, to clarify: “It's not from me.” He then followed those words with a trash bin emoji.
The year before that, in January 2024, Spence had stated that the reason for his hiatus had to do with cataract surgery, though was quick to dismiss any suggestion that the eye issues would be career-ending. “You can kill the retirement s***,” he said in defiance.
Then he had a fight scheduled against Sebastian Fundora – first for October 2024, then rearranged for January 2025 – and again there was speculation about (a) his health and (b) his future in the sport. Even Spence himself admitted: “Might be the last time you see me.” In the end, however, there was to be no Fundora fight and still, as of February 2026, we patiently await Spence’s comeback.
According to the latest reports (per The Ring), there is now a chance that Spence will meet Tim Tszyu, another former champion in the rebuilding process, this summer. If so, that will represent Spence’s first bit of action in three years and will see him return to the ring at the age of 36.
A funny thing, time. Whereas three years ago Spence was considered in his prime – on the rise if anything – and touted as the potential new face of American boxing, now, for his return, he will be thought of very differently. Now he will be one of the elder statesmen of the sport. Now, rather than receive praise for his stamina and athleticism, people will question whether Spence’s body can hold up and whether his problematic eyes should be in range of punches. “Does he really want it?” they will ask ahead of any comeback. “Is he still hungry?”
They will, to validate their concern, perhaps point to “Prince” Naseem Hamed’s reaction to losing his first professional fight against Marco Antonio Barrera in April 2001. Hamed, like Spence, had taken time out following that shattering defeat before returning to the ring 13 months later in a low-key IBO title fight against Manuel Calvo. I was there at the London Arena that night and can remember seeing Hamed essentially retire mid-fight, fed up with it all. Gone, all of a sudden, was his passion for the sport and both the desire and spite to finish Calvo in a mismatch. Gone, also, was Hamed’s mystique and all that once made him special. In place of that you had 10,000 British fans inside an arena stamping their feet in frustration and chanting “Bruno! Bruno! Bruno!” to reveal that absence, in Hamed’s case, had not made the heart grow fonder. Hamed, needless to say, got the message. Though then only 28, he would never fight again.
Spence, a less divisive and more popular character, won’t be without goodwill when he returns, that’s for sure. But he will be without Terence Crawford, his old rival, who retired from the sport in December with a perfect record: 42-0. That, on the face of it, could be a good thing for Spence; a chance for him to properly move on and avoid any painful reminders. Or, conversely, knowing that Crawford, at his expense, not only became the “best fighter in boxing” but then applied the “period” by retiring at the perfect time could be the salt in Errol Spence’s wound.
Either way, there is no bigger indication of both the passing of time and the fleeting nature of superstardom than what we have seen happen, or not happen, in the two and a half years since Crawford vs Spence. It wasn’t all that long ago that we struggled to separate them. Now it’s a struggle just to find them and remember them the way they were.
