Errol Spence Jr has activated a rematch clause in an attempt to avenge his first career loss at the hands of Terence Crawford.
Spence put his unified welterweight titles on the line against Crawford’s WBO strap, with the winner being crowned the first undisputed 147 champion of the four-belt era.
That was Crawford, and convincingly. He dominated a battered and bloodied Spence, who was eventually stopped in the ninth round.
Not many predicted the one-sided nature of the bout, but in the aftermath most don’t see much of a reason for a rematch. That includes pundit Stephen A Smith, who spoke on his YouTube channel about the situation, expressing worry for Spence’s health.
“The reality is that Errol Spence Jr doesn’t need to be back in the ring. You saw him. You heard the slurring of the words. I know it was in the immediate aftermath of the beatdown but my goodness, we know what we saw.”
Whilst Smith – a popular pundit who started his TV career in the late nineties – believes that the rematch clause shouldn’t have been activated at all, he urged those involved to not make it happen this year.
“Crawford’s trainer Brian McIntyre has said no specific date has been discussed but he hopes it’ll happen before the end of the year. My response to that would be how could you possibly hope that? I mean you wanna buy as much time as you possibly can, for Errol Spence to fully recover looks wise, just the scars … it was bad y’all.
I love Errol Spence Jr. I’m not cracking jokes, I’m not laughing, I don’t think it’s funny. It was just bad. He does not need to get back in the ring with Terence Crawford this year. Me personally, period. He don’t need to get back in the ring until next summer.”
Since the confirmation of the second fight from Spence’s end not much has moved. Crawford is keen to keep fighting though, with his sights set on more weight divisions to add to his record.