VIDEO: The historical significance of Terence Crawford vs Errol Spence Jr.

The welterweight division is one of the most celebrated and historically rich weight classes in boxing history.

There have been many great welterweights, and many great welterweight championship contests that have seen the best of the best at 147 battle it out. Will an undisputed welterweight championship showdown between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr soon become a part of the welterweight history books?

Last Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Spence put his unified IBF/WBC welterweight championship on the line against super WBA champion Yordenis Ugas. Part of the backstory for this one involves living legend Manny Pacquiao. Spence was scheduled to have a fight with Pac Man last August, but Errol had to pull out because of the discovery of a retinal tear. Ugas stepped in, and he defeated Pacquiao in a career defining effort, stealing the thunder that might have possibly otherwise belonged to Spence were it not for the injury.

Ugas got off to a pretty good start in the early rounds, where he was defensively sound and occasionally landing a sharp counter. But once Spence started getting a better feel and finding his groove, he really started rolling. Spence was landing all types of shots in pretty tight quarters, and his ample stamina enabled him to continue unloading a wide variety of punches in bunches both upstairs and down. Spence seemed to get better and stronger as the fight progressed. Things came to an end in round 10 when the ringside physician advised the referee to stop the fight because of damage suffered around the eye of Ugas. With the victory, Spence is now the unified IBF/WBC/WBA super duper champion, and that is also 6 consecutive title defenses for him.

So right now Spence holds 3 of the 4 major world title belts at 147, and the other one belongs to Terence Crawford, the reigning WBO welterweight champion. His last outing was in December when he became the only boxer to stop Shawn Porter inside the distance. A welterweight showdown between Crawford and Spence has been on the wish list of most boxing fans for a number of years now. Both of them are welterweight champs, both of them have perfect undefeated records, and both of them are among the elite pound for pound boxing talents competing in the sport today. Spence never fought anyone like Crawford, and Crawford hasn’t faced anyone like Spence. It is a fight that would in theory produce the first undisputed welterweight world champion during the modern 4 belt era, and it needs to happen.

So will an undisputed welterweight championship showdown between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr soon become a part of the welterweight history books? One can hope. But historically, it is extremely important that this bout comes together sooner than later, ideally in the very near future.

This edition of Rummy’s Corner will provide a quick recap of the most recent victories of both Crawford and Spence, while providing one man’s opinion on why this one is important for boxing history.