Was cataract really the secret reason Spence lost to Bud?

[satiev1]

Nope. Watch the danny garcia fight post accident and then watch the porter fight pre accident. It's the same exact spence

[BustedKnuckles]

Have all of his sparring partners been hitting him with "so many jabs and hooks" too? If not, then it wasn't the cataracts; it was just Bud being better.

[Gideon lock]

The levels step up and levels step down from both guys is milliseconds, its not such a drastic swing but it can have drastic results, that's boxing and its in fractions.

Great post, it makes a lot of sense

[hugh grant]

Spence didn't live the boxer lifestyle. Wasn't dedicated

[QueensburyRules]

Spence says he was unable to see the jabs and got hit repeatedly because of cataract. Now that he has undergone the surgery, would he be able to turn tbe tables on Bud?

- - Nobody to pay to see that predicted mismatch.

Spence is shot as he first showed vs Ugh where he had no timing or balance. He left his career in his wrecked Ferrari and lucky he could buy new teefs.

[PBR Streetgang]

I've never been so surprised by just how bad a top fighter looked.

Crawford is a generational talent but that was a husk of a Spence in there. Whether it was the weight or this- I probably could buy an excuse on this one.

Without really wanting one to win over the other it was just a profoundly disappointing fight after years of build up.

Yeah Crawford looked electric and Spence gamely took an absolute shoeing but I doubt anyone really expected or wanted to see that.

I think it was probably a combination of things, the most important is that Crawford is just a better fighter especially at the moment and place that they fought. I think certain variables caught up to Spence: lifestyle, sustained damage (both in and out of the ring) and the weight cut. These all exacerbated the biggest cause for how bad Spence looked, Crawford is just levels above.

[Sparked_26]

I think it was probably a combination of things, the most important is that Crawford is just a better fighter especially at the moment and place that they fought. I think certain variables caught up to Spence: lifestyle, sustained damage (both in and out of the ring) and the weight cut. These all exacerbated the biggest cause for how bad Spence looked, Crawford is just levels above.

Agree with all. With hindsight should have been more apparent albeit I know the bookies had Crawford a decent favorite.

Midway through round 3 you're already thinking: ' Spence is never getting into this, I don't know how he could get into this, and actually I'm absolutely certain he's gonna get a tremendous beating and probably knocked smooth out.'

Just felt sorry for Spence in there and from his end he basically had to stick it out with a big chance of getting rendered unconscious.

Reminded me of the sort of fight you see in Muay Thai in Thailand where there is a house fighter essentially who will have a game opponent who will always end up getting violently knocked out. It had that uncomfortable flow to the fight when I was expected a 12 round contest.

[crimsonfalcon07]

The levels step up and levels step down from both guys is milliseconds, its not such a drastic swing but it can have drastic results, that's boxing and its in fractions.

True. That's why styles that depend on reflexes age out so fast, especially counterpunchers. That millisecond might be the difference between getting knocked out and landing your own offense.

That said, the difference wasn't milliseconds on the night. I don't care if he was having a bad night or not. He was WAY behind the curve. That's also not the only issue. Spence is a basic fighter, eg, his style depends on applying just the basics. He does that well, but basic styles inevitably come up short against people with more tools in the toolbox.

For instance, Spence likes to enter with a sloppy double or triple jab to drive opponents back against the ropes. He generally crouches forward to avoid counter power shots, because the angle is bad for a right handed counter. But that tendency left him really open to both the power overhand ******* jabs and the southpaw overhand counters from Bud. Bud was cracking him over top that jab all night. And since Spence can't start offense without the jab, that left him without answers. If he had an explosive lead right to open with, he'd have had more options.

Bud had better distance control because he's got better footwork, and since Spence couldn't drive him to the ropes without getting countered hard, he ended up overreaching, and that left him falling out of position, ripe for a counter. That got him dropped at least once.

Spence rarely moves his head off the center lane. Against his fellow PBC fighters who weren't able to deal with his pressure, that wasn't as big a deal. But his head positioning was predictable, and that's a fatal flaw at the elite level. Bud probably could have landed some of those shots with his eyes closed.

He doesn't often take angles, for instance, but that's because he has enough power and pressure to overwhelm people so he doesn't need to depend on that. But he struggles against opponents who do have that tool, such as Porter.

None of these issues are the sort of things that are really affected by milliseconds. If the other guy is much faster than you, all the timing on the world isn't going to make a big difference. The main way you have to equalize that is to use feints. Then you can time them by making them commit while you're still in position, and that gives you time to catch up. But Spence doesn't really use feints...

This is part and parcel of why I never thought Spence was P4P. He simply doesn't have the skillset to compete at that level. I think he'd do similarly well to Casimero if he were a bantamweight. He's got the power and pressure to beat a lot of guys, but he's going to fall short against guys with better skills every time, barring a lucky shot.

[ELPacman]

Does anyone recall at the weigh-in face off, Spence told Crawford they were about to make boat load of money with a smile on his face. I feel like Spence may have been OVER confident that he had Crawford? Almost like, be happy, we're both going to get paid big for making the fight happen and when it's over, you can fight someone else while I move on to bigger and better things. Obviously it didn't turn out that way, but Spence was the one with that comment.

[hugh grant]

Bud knew Spence didn't live the boxer life, but if they'd fought 5 years ago, the drink wouldn't have had as much effect as spence was young. But 6 years more of drinking onwards, obviously takes its toll.