There are not many fighters who can say they have shared the ring with both Floyd Mayweather Jr and Terence Crawford.
This is not the case for Errol Spence Jr, who is one of the very few men who has spent time in the ring with both during his career.
Spence, who held the unified WBC, WBA and IBF welterweight titles between 2017 and 2023, was a sparring partner of Mayweather Jr for a period of time some years ago, helping ‘TBE’ prepare for his victory over Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez back in 2013.
‘The Truth’ finally clashed with Crawford in July 2023 in a bout that was contested for the undisputed world welterweight championship. Despite the feeling beforehand that the contest between the pair could have gone either way, it was Crawford who dominated proceedings and knocked out Spence Jr in the ninth round.
With experience against both men, the 34-year-old told FightHype who he thinks would have prevailed in a contest between ‘Bud’ and ‘TBE’, claiming Mayweather is ‘just different’.
“It’s a big difference. Floyd is just different. I feel like he’s the best fighter… I don’t know about all time, he might be the best fighter of all time and if not he’s close. Two or three, not by far.
There’s different things that Floyd does. He was a lot older when I sparred him and there are just certain things he does that are real tricky. We’d get in the clinch and he was like squeezing my nose so I couldn’t breathe and stuff like that. Veteran, all-time type stuff. Mentally, by far I feel like he’s the best.”
Although his future in the sport remains unconfirmed, Spence Jr is expected to return to the ring at some point in 2025 rather than retire as many fans and pundits have predicted.
