Name: Terence Crawford on Gaining Respect After Beating Errol Spence Jr.
Uploaded: 2023-08-18T17:02:24.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Terence Crawford on Gaining Respect After Beating Errol Spence Jr.' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-08-18. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Terence Crawford on Gaining Respect After Beating Errol Spence Jr.' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-08-18. Transcript available.

It's a wonderful thing that I had to fight to, you know, get everybody approval.
Well, it's tricky in boxing sometimes because sometimes it's difficult to make
those matchups happen
in a dream matchup like that between two undefeated world champions
and for you to dominate the way you did.
Because a lot of people had that, like, a pick-em fight.
Like, a lot of people didn't know how to call it.
But you just fucking ran that fight.
You ran that fight.
That was amazing.
Yeah, you know, that's a fight that we've been wanting for years.
And to finally secure the fight and perform the way that I performed,
it was a great moment for me and my career.
It was beautiful, man.
I mean, just the way you controlled, the way you switched things up,
the way you controlled the pace of the fight, the defense, your defense was on
point.
Those hooks that you were landing in close were magnificent.
It was a brilliant fight, man.
I mean, I'm sure you appreciate it.
I'm sure you watched it a bunch of times.
But, man, that was like a real – because it was such a mainstream fight,
such a huge fight where everybody was paying attention to it and talking about
it,
even casuals, that they got to see you perform that way.
And, you know, now it's like there's no dispute.
You're the number one pound-for-pound guy on earth.
Yeah.
That's something that I got to credit to my coaches, you know,
because we drilled everything that you've seen fight night.
We drilled it time and time again, time and time again.
So it was – it came natural and easy for me when the fight came.
You know, like I said, only thing they kept saying how he's going to beat me
is because he's bigger and he's stronger.
That was it.
You look stronger.
Of course.
Of course.
And I was just like, how do you know he's stronger than me?
Right.
He might be bigger than me, but big don't mean stronger.
Well, he's just taller than you.
You look more muscular than him too.
But it was just – the technique was what really stood out.
It's like you just were a master in there.
It was a master class.
That's something that they wasn't giving me credit for as well.
How?
Because they said –
That's the thing.
It's like how were they not?
You know, I don't know what it is.
With me, they just always try to diminish my accomplishments and, oh, well,
who I was fighting, they say, oh, well, you wasn't fighting nobody.
And this guy, Errol Spence, is the most fundamentally sound fighter in the game.
So that's why everybody was picking him.
But I was favorite in Vegas, so Vegas must have had it right.
Yeah.
Well, the wise people picked you as a favorite, you know, just based on your
accomplishments.
It's not like Errol Spence wasn't a great fighter.
He's a great fighter.
But it's so interesting when you watch a great fighter against what I believe
is an all-time great.
It's just that there's just levels upon levels upon levels upon levels.
And right now, you're at the top of the fucking mountain.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
And I'm enjoying it.
I'm enjoying it.
Beautiful.
You deserve it.
You deserve it.
That's a – when you planned for that fight, you knew that you were probably
going to fight him, like, for the last few years.
It was something that was on the table.
But not really.
There was a point in time where I was like, you know, I shifted gears and I
shifted my mind off of Errol Spence because I didn't feel like the fight was
going to happen.
But once I left top rank and we started negotiating, I was like, oh, well,
maybe this fight will happen.
Then once I fought Abanesian because the conversations and everything that we
was talking about to get the fight done, it wasn't lining up to what I wanted.
So I decided to take another fight and then I came back to the table and like,
hey, listen, let's get this fight made.
And at that point in time, things wasn't going how I would have liked it to go.
So I just hit up Spence like, hey, man, listen, man.
If me and you're going to fight, me and you're going to get this done because,
you know, there's a lot of people that are blocking the fight.
How are they blocking?
Like, what was the holdup?
Which is business wise, you know, I just felt like I was worth X amount and
they felt like I wasn't.
And they wanted to do the deal a certain way.
And I wanted to do the deal the fair way.
And Errol Spence seen it.
He was just he was he was agreeing with everything that I said.
He was like, yeah, we can do this.
We can do that.
And he probably felt like he gave up too much, you know, at the at the end when
it was all said and done.
But I was I felt like everything was fair.
Was it in terms of like the purse split?
Everything.
Everything.
We talked about everything.
Yeah.
And so this fight had been discussed for like how many years now?
Five.
Five years.
Wow.
That's crazy that it takes that long for something like this to happen in
boxing.
When I came when I came when I came to the welterweight division, I called out
all the champions except Sean Porter.
I called out all the champions.
I wanted them all, you know, at that time.
And I wasn't able to get in the ring with any of them.
And at that point in time, they was calling Aero Spence the boogeyman.
And my reply was, how is he the boogeyman when I'm chasing him?
You know, I just wanted to prove to the world that I was better than what they
say I was.
Because given the fact that how great I looked against each opponent, they say,
oh, well, he wasn't nothing or he was this.
He was that because how talented I am.
Right.
So they didn't want to give me no credit because I passed all my tests with
flying colors.
So it was great to get in the ring with Aero Spence Jr. and do the same thing,
if not better, than I did for the past opponents that I faced.
No, you were on fire.
It's sort of the same thing that Roy Jones Jr. faced.
Like, everybody's like, Roy hasn't beaten anybody.
Like, yes, he has.
It's just he's so much better than everybody else that he was making everybody
else look like they weren't any good.
But those were world championship caliber fighters, and Roy was just lighting
them up.
Right.
That sometimes when a fighter eclipses everyone else and reaches the pinnacle,
that's the criticism they face until there's an undeniable moment.
You know, and that was your undeniable moment.
Like, everybody's got to shut the fuck up now.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's what, you know, my feelings was.
You know, a lot of people were like, man, you didn't look too happy.
You know, after you won, I didn't see the excitement in you.
I was like, man, I was happy.
I was happy just I had to prove myself, you know, to the world how great I knew
I was.
But at the same time, I was kind of disappointed at the same time that it took
this long for me to get my recognition and for me to get a big marquee fight of
this status at 35 years old.
Yeah.
Especially after chasing it for five years.
Right.
And I was chasing Manny Pacquiao for probably five years, probably before that.
Yeah.
So it's like I've been champion for nine years, going on 10 years in March.
So I've been doing this game for a long time, you know, and I've been at the
top since I beat Gamboa.
And I've been looking for all the biggest challenges there is.
And some of them I was able to capture and some of them went the other way.
And I'm just blessed to be able to be the first man to be undisputed in a
junior welterweight division, the first man to be undisputed in a welterweight
division in the four bell era, the first man to be undisputed in two weight
divisions.
So, it's a blessing.
It's a blessing.
It's a huge blessing.
It's an amazing accomplishment.
You looked happy.
You were dancing with your mom.
You were having a good time.
Yeah, of course.
I don't know why people thought you weren't happy.
Because, you know, when you go in the back room, everybody want to see the
excitement.
Right.
I was just like, I got that off my back.
Yeah.
It was a sign of relief.
Was there anything unusual about that fight?
Like, is that exactly how you expected the exchanges to go?
I'm sure you watched a ton of tape on him, right?
Actually, I didn't.
Really?
I didn't.
Because a lot of people always ask me, do I watch a lot of film on my opponents?
And I always tell them no, because I have a different style.
They're not going to fight me the same style or the same way that they fought
their previous opponents.
They're just not, you know.
So, I already knew how he fought.
I just watched probably, like, two fights of his just to get a feel for what he
liked to do, what he don't like.
The things that, you know, I can capitalize on.
And that's it.
Like, I don't watch too much film because I'm going to make my adjustments on
the fly inside the ring.
So, yeah, I don't watch too much film.
That's interesting.
What is the general consensus on that, about watching film?
Do most champions watch film?
Is it just on an individual basis?
No, some people like to watch film to where they feel as if they know what
their opponent's going to do, when they're going to do it, because they got
certain habits to identify when they're going to throw a punch or when they're
going to back up.
Certain things that you see as a top athlete, you start noticing.
Okay, I noticed that he's doing this when he's doing this.
He's doing that when he's doing this.
And you pick up on that.
And so, you put it in your mind, like, okay, we're going to prepare for this.
When you do that, we're going to do this.
So, you try to capitalize on it.
But me, I never was that type of person.
I let my coaches, they do the studying, and then they come up with a plan, and
then they shoot me the plan to win, and we just go from there.
When you switch, because you're, in my opinion, the best ever at switching from
Orthodox to Southpaw since Marvin Hagler.
You're the best ever.
Like, when do you decide?
Do you just feel it?
Do you go out there at Southpaw sometimes and say, I'm going to fucking switch
it up?
Like, how do you make those changes?
Well, I think I made the change to fight Southpaw in the back dress room.
Really?
Yeah, because I was like, man, how should I come out?
Because in my mind, I was just so filled with, like, the energy from the weigh-ins,
the press conference, the weight, the moment.
So I was like, man, I just want to go out there.
You know, everybody's saying I'm too small, so I wanted to prove them wrong.
Everybody was saying he was going to walk me down.
So I was just like, man, you know, they just don't know.
Like, I just had that chip on my shoulder.
Like, I just want to go head on with the bull and just go fight him.
And it was like, just box.
I was like, just box.
And then I was remembering.
I was like, he never fought too many Southpaws before.
And then on one of the occasions, he got hurt real bad by a hook.
So I was like, I'm coming out Southpaw and we're going to box, just to start
off.
But at the same time, I'm going to get my respect out the gate.
I'm not going to be doing all that moving.
So the plan was never to move.
And everybody, when you interview them, they was like, oh, Terrence got to be
slippery.
He can't stand in front of Spence.
He can't do this.
He got to get on his bicycle.
I'm like, he ain't no Terminator.
I'm like, man, I'm going to be right there in front of him like I always do.
You know, I'm going to make him miss.
I'm going to make him pay.
And I'm going to fight my fight.
So I feel like that was the key for the victory because he wasn't used to
fighting Southpaws.
Do you feel as comfortable orthodox as Southpaw?
Do you feel like you're better in one stance or is it just depending upon the
opponent?
I think it's dependent on the opponent.
You know, I feel I'm equally as great in both stands.
I'm very powerful in both stands.
I hit just as hard with my left, probably even harder with my left than my
right, you know.
But I think it's the opponent.
They were talking about it in the broadcast.
They said that when you were a kid, you hurt your hand.
And so that's why you started practicing Southpaw.
Yeah, that's when I started actually practicing it, you know.
That was something that when I had the cast on, I was like, man, I love the gym
so much.
I'm like, man, I'm not leaving the gym.
Like, I'm going to practice with this left.
And that's when I got the left stronger because at first when I go Southpaw, it
was only, you know, my right, my right, my right.
Then when my hand got messed up, I just started working on the left, and it
started getting stronger and stronger.
And I started getting more accurate because at first, I just throw it just to
be throwing it.
And then, you know, it just got to a point where they both, my left was
actually way stronger than my right when it came back.
So I had to get my right back stronger.
That's great.
It's crazy that you have that option because that's such an amazing advantage
to be able to fight just as comfortably from Orthodox of Southpaw.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
Definitely.
You know, I look at it like you can't go nowhere.
Right.
Like you're trapped.
Like you move to your left, I can go Southpaw and cut you off.
You move to your right, I can go Orthodox and cut you off.
And then it's great that I can pack a punch in both hands as well because a lot
of people, when they switch, they give up something.
I think when I switch, I gain something in both stands that I probably don't
have in other stands.
So it's great for me.

Terence Crawford on Gaining Respect After Beating Errol Spence Jr.

It's a wonderful thing that I had to fight to, you know, get everybody approval.
Well, it's tricky in boxing sometimes because sometimes it's difficult to make
those matchups happen
in a dream matchup like that between two undefeated world champions
and for you to dominate the way you did.
Because a lot of people had that, like, a pick-em fight.
Like, a lot of people didn't know how to call it.
But you just fucking ran that fight.
You ran that fight.
That was amazing.
Yeah, you know, that's a fight that we've been wanting for years.
And to finally secure the fight and perform the way that I performed,
it was a great moment for me and my career.
It was beautiful, man.
I mean, just the way you controlled, the way you switched things up,
the way you controlled the pace of the fight, the defense, your defense was on
point.
Those hooks that you were landing in close were magnificent.
It was a brilliant fight, man.
I mean, I'm sure you appreciate it.
I'm sure you watched it a bunch of times.
But, man, that was like a real – because it was such a mainstream fight,
such a huge fight where everybody was paying attention to it and talking about
it,
even casuals, that they got to see you perform that way.
And, you know, now it's like there's no dispute.
You're the number one pound-for-pound guy on earth.
Yeah.
That's something that I got to credit to my coaches, you know,
because we drilled everything that you've seen fight night.
We drilled it time and time again, time and time again.
So it was – it came natural and easy for me when the fight came.
You know, like I said, only thing they kept saying how he's going to beat me
is because he's bigger and he's stronger.
That was it.
You look stronger.
Of course.
Of course.
And I was just like, how do you know he's stronger than me?
Right.
He might be bigger than me, but big don't mean stronger.
Well, he's just taller than you.
You look more muscular than him too.
But it was just – the technique was what really stood out.
It's like you just were a master in there.
It was a master class.
That's something that they wasn't giving me credit for as well.
How?
Because they said –
That's the thing.
It's like how were they not?
You know, I don't know what it is.
With me, they just always try to diminish my accomplishments and, oh, well,
who I was fighting, they say, oh, well, you wasn't fighting nobody.
And this guy, Errol Spence, is the most fundamentally sound fighter in the game.
So that's why everybody was picking him.
But I was favorite in Vegas, so Vegas must have had it right.
Yeah.
Well, the wise people picked you as a favorite, you know, just based on your
accomplishments.
It's not like Errol Spence wasn't a great fighter.
He's a great fighter.
But it's so interesting when you watch a great fighter against what I believe
is an all-time great.
It's just that there's just levels upon levels upon levels upon levels.
And right now, you're at the top of the fucking mountain.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
And I'm enjoying it.
I'm enjoying it.
Beautiful.
You deserve it.
You deserve it.
That's a – when you planned for that fight, you knew that you were probably
going to fight him, like, for the last few years.
It was something that was on the table.
But not really.
There was a point in time where I was like, you know, I shifted gears and I
shifted my mind off of Errol Spence because I didn't feel like the fight was
going to happen.
But once I left top rank and we started negotiating, I was like, oh, well,
maybe this fight will happen.
Then once I fought Abanesian because the conversations and everything that we
was talking about to get the fight done, it wasn't lining up to what I wanted.
So I decided to take another fight and then I came back to the table and like,
hey, listen, let's get this fight made.
And at that point in time, things wasn't going how I would have liked it to go.
So I just hit up Spence like, hey, man, listen, man.
If me and you're going to fight, me and you're going to get this done because,
you know, there's a lot of people that are blocking the fight.
How are they blocking?
Like, what was the holdup?
Which is business wise, you know, I just felt like I was worth X amount and
they felt like I wasn't.
And they wanted to do the deal a certain way.
And I wanted to do the deal the fair way.
And Errol Spence seen it.
He was just he was he was agreeing with everything that I said.
He was like, yeah, we can do this.
We can do that.
And he probably felt like he gave up too much, you know, at the at the end when
it was all said and done.
But I was I felt like everything was fair.
Was it in terms of like the purse split?
Everything.
Everything.
We talked about everything.
Yeah.
And so this fight had been discussed for like how many years now?
Five.
Five years.
Wow.
That's crazy that it takes that long for something like this to happen in
boxing.
When I came when I came when I came to the welterweight division, I called out
all the champions except Sean Porter.
I called out all the champions.
I wanted them all, you know, at that time.
And I wasn't able to get in the ring with any of them.
And at that point in time, they was calling Aero Spence the boogeyman.
And my reply was, how is he the boogeyman when I'm chasing him?
You know, I just wanted to prove to the world that I was better than what they
say I was.
Because given the fact that how great I looked against each opponent, they say,
oh, well, he wasn't nothing or he was this.
He was that because how talented I am.
Right.
So they didn't want to give me no credit because I passed all my tests with
flying colors.
So it was great to get in the ring with Aero Spence Jr. and do the same thing,
if not better, than I did for the past opponents that I faced.
No, you were on fire.
It's sort of the same thing that Roy Jones Jr. faced.
Like, everybody's like, Roy hasn't beaten anybody.
Like, yes, he has.
It's just he's so much better than everybody else that he was making everybody
else look like they weren't any good.
But those were world championship caliber fighters, and Roy was just lighting
them up.
Right.
That sometimes when a fighter eclipses everyone else and reaches the pinnacle,
that's the criticism they face until there's an undeniable moment.
You know, and that was your undeniable moment.
Like, everybody's got to shut the fuck up now.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's what, you know, my feelings was.
You know, a lot of people were like, man, you didn't look too happy.
You know, after you won, I didn't see the excitement in you.
I was like, man, I was happy.
I was happy just I had to prove myself, you know, to the world how great I knew
I was.
But at the same time, I was kind of disappointed at the same time that it took
this long for me to get my recognition and for me to get a big marquee fight of
this status at 35 years old.
Yeah.
Especially after chasing it for five years.
Right.
And I was chasing Manny Pacquiao for probably five years, probably before that.
Yeah.
So it's like I've been champion for nine years, going on 10 years in March.
So I've been doing this game for a long time, you know, and I've been at the
top since I beat Gamboa.
And I've been looking for all the biggest challenges there is.
And some of them I was able to capture and some of them went the other way.
And I'm just blessed to be able to be the first man to be undisputed in a
junior welterweight division, the first man to be undisputed in a welterweight
division in the four bell era, the first man to be undisputed in two weight
divisions.
So, it's a blessing.
It's a blessing.
It's a huge blessing.
It's an amazing accomplishment.
You looked happy.
You were dancing with your mom.
You were having a good time.
Yeah, of course.
I don't know why people thought you weren't happy.
Because, you know, when you go in the back room, everybody want to see the
excitement.
Right.
I was just like, I got that off my back.
Yeah.
It was a sign of relief.
Was there anything unusual about that fight?
Like, is that exactly how you expected the exchanges to go?
I'm sure you watched a ton of tape on him, right?
Actually, I didn't.
Really?
I didn't.
Because a lot of people always ask me, do I watch a lot of film on my opponents?
And I always tell them no, because I have a different style.
They're not going to fight me the same style or the same way that they fought
their previous opponents.
They're just not, you know.
So, I already knew how he fought.
I just watched probably, like, two fights of his just to get a feel for what he
liked to do, what he don't like.
The things that, you know, I can capitalize on.
And that's it.
Like, I don't watch too much film because I'm going to make my adjustments on
the fly inside the ring.
So, yeah, I don't watch too much film.
That's interesting.
What is the general consensus on that, about watching film?
Do most champions watch film?
Is it just on an individual basis?
No, some people like to watch film to where they feel as if they know what
their opponent's going to do, when they're going to do it, because they got
certain habits to identify when they're going to throw a punch or when they're
going to back up.
Certain things that you see as a top athlete, you start noticing.
Okay, I noticed that he's doing this when he's doing this.
He's doing that when he's doing this.
And you pick up on that.
And so, you put it in your mind, like, okay, we're going to prepare for this.
When you do that, we're going to do this.
So, you try to capitalize on it.
But me, I never was that type of person.
I let my coaches, they do the studying, and then they come up with a plan, and
then they shoot me the plan to win, and we just go from there.
When you switch, because you're, in my opinion, the best ever at switching from
Orthodox to Southpaw since Marvin Hagler.
You're the best ever.
Like, when do you decide?
Do you just feel it?
Do you go out there at Southpaw sometimes and say, I'm going to fucking switch
it up?
Like, how do you make those changes?
Well, I think I made the change to fight Southpaw in the back dress room.
Really?
Yeah, because I was like, man, how should I come out?
Because in my mind, I was just so filled with, like, the energy from the weigh-ins,
the press conference, the weight, the moment.
So I was like, man, I just want to go out there.
You know, everybody's saying I'm too small, so I wanted to prove them wrong.
Everybody was saying he was going to walk me down.
So I was just like, man, you know, they just don't know.
Like, I just had that chip on my shoulder.
Like, I just want to go head on with the bull and just go fight him.
And it was like, just box.
I was like, just box.
And then I was remembering.
I was like, he never fought too many Southpaws before.
And then on one of the occasions, he got hurt real bad by a hook.
So I was like, I'm coming out Southpaw and we're going to box, just to start
off.
But at the same time, I'm going to get my respect out the gate.
I'm not going to be doing all that moving.
So the plan was never to move.
And everybody, when you interview them, they was like, oh, Terrence got to be
slippery.
He can't stand in front of Spence.
He can't do this.
He got to get on his bicycle.
I'm like, he ain't no Terminator.
I'm like, man, I'm going to be right there in front of him like I always do.
You know, I'm going to make him miss.
I'm going to make him pay.
And I'm going to fight my fight.
So I feel like that was the key for the victory because he wasn't used to
fighting Southpaws.
Do you feel as comfortable orthodox as Southpaw?
Do you feel like you're better in one stance or is it just depending upon the
opponent?
I think it's dependent on the opponent.
You know, I feel I'm equally as great in both stands.
I'm very powerful in both stands.
I hit just as hard with my left, probably even harder with my left than my
right, you know.
But I think it's the opponent.
They were talking about it in the broadcast.
They said that when you were a kid, you hurt your hand.
And so that's why you 