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WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo has tabbed WBC, WBA and IBF welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr 28-0 (22) to best WBO counterpart Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford 38-0 (29) if they meet as expected later this year.
The 32-year-old Spence of Texas looked impressive in his ring return following a 16-month layoff when he dismantled Yordenis Ugás 27-5 (12) in 10 rounds at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Saturday night.
Southpaw Spence found his rhythm by the middle rounds and began to put a beating on the 35-year-old Miami-based Cuban Ugás, closing his right eye and fracturing his eye socket before the ringside physician advised referee Laurence Cole to stop the fight at the 0:59 mark of the 10th round.
After the fight Spence called for a unification bout against fellow lefty Crawford, from Omaha, Nebraska.
Charlo backed his fellow Texan to get the job done against Crawford and praised his performance against Ugás.
“Super good. He broke him down, beat his ass,” Charlo said to FightHubTV. “I told y’all, eight, nine or ten. [Spence will] beat [Crawford’s] ass.”
Spence’s trainer Derrick James was asked about Crawford’s record of 10 knockouts in a row compared to Spence, who scored his first stoppage victory against Ugás in four fights dating back almost four years.
“Ten knockouts in a row against who?” said James to FightHubTV. “Shawn Porter’s dad said he was going to stop the fight before the fight. Didn’t he say that? So what does that mean?
“He was showing Shawn that he was still the boss. It was a power struggle going on in the ring.
“I’m just saying he hasn’t fought the same level of competition. I don’t know. I’ve only seen him fight two or three times.”
Since moving up in weight to 147-pounds, the 34-year-old Crawford has defeated Jeff Horn, Jose Benavidez Jr, Amir Khan, Egidijus Kavaliauskas, Kell Brook and Shawn Porter dating back to June 2018.
Spence won the IBF welterweight title from a prime Kell Brook in England in May 2017 before going on to defeat Lamont Peterson, Carlos Ocampo Manriquez, Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia before meeting Ugás on the weekend. He collected WBC belt from Porter and the WBA strap from Ugás, who shocked many in the boxing world when he outpointed Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao for the black belt on late notice last August.
Ugás was a late replacement for Spence who was forced to withdraw from the fight 10 days out with a retinal tear.
Crawford has previously unified all four major belts at junior welterweight. Victory over Spence Jr will make him the first two-weight four belt world champion.
The Ring magazine ranks Crawford their number three pound-for-pound boxer in the world, two places ahead of Spence at number five.
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