Errol Spence to activate Terence Crawford rematch clause despite punishing first career loss

Spence wants a December rematch with Crawford to be contested up at light-middleweight after struggles to make 147 pounds
Domination: Terence Crawford knocked down Errol Spence three times en route to a ninth-round stoppage
Getty Images
George Flood30 July 2023

Errol Spence has confirmed that he intends to swiftly exercise his clause for a rematch against Terence Crawford, despite being absolutely blown away by his rival.

Crawford produced an all-time great performance to make history as boxing’s first male two-weight undisputed world champion of the four-belt era in Las Vegas on Saturday night, battering a bloodied and stunned Spence and delivering three ruthless knockdowns en route to a brutal ninth-round stoppage.

‘Bud’ also laid a huge claim to the title of the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter, staying undefeated at 40-0 with 31 knockouts and inflicting Spence’s first professional loss in the process as he added the WBA, WBC and IBF titles at 147 pounds to the WBO strap he has held since 2018.

Three-division world champion Crawford is 8-0 since moving up to welterweight after a stint as undisputed at light-welterweight, knocking out everyone put in his path including now no fewer than six current or former world champions.

Despite the totally one-sided nature of what many had billed as the biggest occasion in the sport since Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao in 2015, Spence remains motivated to swiftly avenge his maiden defeat with a December bout that he hopes is contested up at the light-middleweight limit of 154 pounds, having said many times in the build-up to the fight that it would be his last at welter due to his struggle to make the weight.

“We’ve got to do it again. I would be a lot better, it would be a lot closer. We got to do it again,” Spence said immediately after the fight of another meeting with Crawford this year.

He later said in his post-bout press conference: “I’m definitely open to the rematch and hopefully it will be at 154 pounds.”

Asked if the public would “buy” a rematch between the duo after the completely one-sided nature of their first fight on Saturday, Crawford said: “Of course the public would buy it, look how many people came out to show us both support tonight.

“If the fight happens again I am pretty sure the support will come out again for both of us.”

Crawford also surprisingly appeared open to the prospect of moving up to 154 pounds to facilitate the rematch with Spence.

“147 pounds was kinda hard for me too,” he said. “I was already talking about moving up and challenging [undisputed light-middleweight world champion] Jermell Charlo, so 154 pounds wouldn’t be out of reach.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in