Terence Crawford has revealed that Shakur Stevenson made a key decision for him just minutes before his generational fight with Errol Spence Jr.
Before the fight, there was a lot of debate surrounding which stance the switch-hitting Crawford would utilise to best fight with southpaw Spence.
He choose to mirror his opponent and not only come out lefty, but remain that way the whole fight.
When speaking to Shawn Porter, Crawford was asked if the rumours that he made that decision minutes before the fight with the help of two-weight world champion Shakur Stevenson were true.
“Yeah. Because in my mind, I want to fight. I want to fight.
[Spence] hasn’t had nobody that has got the confidence or the skills to come out there and be like okay, let me see how you’re gonna take a punch to the chin. Let me see how you’re gonna take a punch to the body. Let me see how you’re gonna react when you can’t bully somebody around.
So my mind was racing a little bit. And I was like man how should I come out? And [Shakur] was like man just come out boxing.”
It worked, and Crawford cruised to a ninth round stoppage victory, dropping Spence three times on the way.
He will now enter a rematch – should Spence choose to pursue one – a heavy favourite to keep his undefeated record.
Whilst ‘Bud’ has said that he will honour the second contracted fight, he’s also expressed an interest in moving up to 154lbs to face current champion Jermell Charlo.
Charlo is currently set to face Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, but the fight with him and Crawford remains a serious possibility for the future.