The countdown is nearly complete from THE fight we have been waiting years for.
When Errol Spence and Terence Crawford meet on Saturday at the T-Mobile in Las Vegas, they do so in a contest fans started dreaming about as both fighters stealthily and skilfully all-but eliminated the best of the rest at 147lbs.
The stakes are high. The winner will be a claimant to the pound-for-pound No. 1 status, the loser will at least have a rematch clause.
It’s a special event and should be a special fight. It’s not come too late. There is no bad blood or ill will. There has been little smack talk. In fact, the opposite has been the case. It is a fight featuring boxers who have 67 wins between them with no blemishes, the cast of those who have fallen at their feet is extensive, including Shawn Porter, Kell Brook, Amir Khan, Ricky Burns, Yordenis Ugas, Danny Garcia, Mikey Garcia, Lamont Peterson, Chris Algieri, Jose Benavidez, Julius Indongo and Jeff Horn.
But as fight fans, all we can do is hope. Our faith is in their hands. (Not including the judges!) And for that reason, we pray that these two excellent stars deliver on Saturday, and here is why boxing needs it.
Please, Terence and Errol, deliver for the heavyweights who aren’t fighting or won’t fight each other.
Please deliver so we don’t question what this fight might have been two years ago.
Please deliver so will can salivate over a rematch that is just as meaningful as this one.
Please deliver so we can taste the nostalgia of the glory days we’ve heard about, of the Four Kings and the days when the best actively sought out and fought the best.
Please deliver so we see two clean athletes perform sporting greatness without any kind of historical asterisk marring any result or athlete with PED use.
Please deliver so we get a great fight between two pound-for-pound contenders, delivering a contest for the ages, that we can share with future generations and say we were there, or at least we were fans during the time Spence fought Crawford.
Please deliver so that for 36 minutes we forget about the poison of organised crime that still weeps from an open wound in the sport and refuses to clear up.
Please deliver so we can show the world what we as a sport truly are, and not what we all too often exhibit.
Please deliver so our wait and faith in both of you is validated. Often, heavily-hyped fights don’t deliver, but this needs no hype, so hopefully it delivers.
Please deliver so that you can show, as Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward so articulately displayed with their wonderful violence 20 years ago, that you do not need to trash-talk one another to take part in a fine sporting event that everyone can leave from with credit and respect.
Please deliver to show that even though fake hate manufactures big bucks that you can do just fine without that unnecessary BS.
Please deliver so that whether in victory or defeat, you only add to your already stellar legacies.
Oh, and to the officials, please don’t screw it up for the rest of us.
