Men of few words: Terence Crawford and Errol Spence like to let their fists speak for themselves

By: Sean Crose

Not exaggerating the obvious but we live in noisy times. Call it the infancy of the Western world. Generations have been raised to believe that bragging is rude, that if one is really good at something, there’s no need to frantic self-promotion. Now, not only bragging, but the ability to brag more than anyone else, is considered a great virtue. In many cases, respect is simply earned by empty boasting. In other words, it’s the pride that society espouses, not the concrete, tangible achievements that can back it up.

The rise of UFC star (and once professional fighter) Conor McGregor over the past decade is proof of this. While McGregor is certainly an excellent mixed martial artist, his army of boy fans clearly prefer his bragging, offensive behavior over his physical prowess. People compare him to Mohammad Ali, but that comparison is weak and momentary. The boastful, often insulting Ali has been a legitimate sports force for nearly two decades, McGregor for a few years. In short, Ali can back up his talk. McGregor, as brilliant as he was, ultimately couldn’t. He’s good, but not as good as he brags about. Not that it matters. Times have changed and people prefer the sizzling sound to the steak.

Sadly, time hasn’t changed much since McGregor’s heyday. Or have them? Later this month, perhaps the biggest boxing bout will come when WBA, WBC and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence takes on WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford for the title. It was a fantastic match – on paper, at least – between two proven undefeated fighters in one of the sport’s most glamorous divisions. Some even went so far as to think that the fight could be a classic. That may or may not be the case. However, what has proven to be somewhat new when leading Crawford-Spence is the fact that the two boxers do not have small chats.

While there’s certainly been some shared digging between the two fighters, the top orator that can be found from the likes of Tyson Fury, Adrien Broner and Teofimo Lopez was mostly absent from the superfight. July 29. In fact, neither Spence nor Crawford like to speak out. They didn’t seem to be holding themselves back before the July 29 game as they were simply BEING MYSELF. Again, this is new. With that being said, it’s worth wondering if the lack of clear talk harms pay-per-view sales. Either way, serious sports fans will clearly enjoy watching Crawford-Spence over Jake Paul’s upcoming fight with the equally colorful Nate Diaz. A match between two world-class boxers against each other. The other pit is two very colorful ones against each other. Paul-Diaz is sure to be interesting, but it’s not likely to peak like the Crawford-Spence fight could.