MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨Errol Spence Jr. vs. Terence Crawford Instant Reaction

Episode Date: July 30, 2023

Luke Thomas has you covered with an instant reaction to the biggest fight in boxing, Errol Spence Jr. vs. Terence Crawford. Luke will break down the fight shortly after it ends. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. And participate in McDonald's in Canada. Tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we...

Brian Campbell. This is our passion. That's the spirit we've Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Just going to be honest with you. Just going to be honest with you. In all the years I've ever watched anything live, not something you can watch on tape, not something you can watch the next day live. In all of my years in watching combat sports, that was the most incredible thing I've ever seen live.

I'm not even talking in person. I mean just either watching at home or in person, whatever. Watching it when it happened. Terrence Oxford stops Errol Spence Jr. in the ninth in what can only be described as a one-ass kicking. Errol Spence Jr. got audited from pillar to post, and I'm telling you right now, folks, it's not hyperbole to say this not hyperbole at all number one that's the best fighter in boxing I did not think Naoya Inoue was going to be topped and somehow Terrence found a way to do it right here in the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas Nevada

where I am right now my name is Luke Thomas welcome to the morning combat Spence Crawford post fight show but number two let me tell you something. Bud Crawford is a boxing genius. No less than that. No less than that at all. I'm honestly, and I had to even like express it to someone, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I had to tell the people around me I was having almost like a religious experience.

I was having almost like a religious experience. I was moved. You ever seen these people like, you know, when Pavarotti is singing and these people are brought to tears. They're so, they're like, they have this connection to this performance and this performer in this moment.

I kind of always understood it, but I had never ever really come close to experiencing anything like that today. Now, I wasn't, you know, crying and throwing handkerchiefs at the boxing ring, but I was moved by that genuinely. So let's get into everything. One more time, let me set up the introduction. Hi, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. We are in the T-Mobile Arena right here in Las Vegas, Nevada, following the conclusion of the Errol Spence Jr.

versus Terrence Bud Crawford 147-pound title unification for Undisputed. And as I just mentioned, Bud Crawford won in one of the most remarkable things you're just ever going to see in your lifetime. I hope you were watching this one live. I hope. Also, he broke the M&M curse. There's an M&M curse, right? Walking out to lose yourself. You do that in MMA, it's like a guarantee you're going to lose.

But I guess if you do it when you're walking out with M&M, different ballgame. Okay, let's talk about the setup to this fight. Number one, cards on the table. BC and I think both pick Spence. We both said you couldn't go wrong either way. The degree to which Bud beat him is extremely surprising. I will just say that candidly. Earlier last week, I had done a tape study on this fight on Errol Spence. It's almost like an hour long on all the things he's good at.

And folks thought, oh, he's a PBC fighter. Why don't you do one on Bud? We tried, actually. I wasn't able to get enough footage from the rights holder in order to be able to do that. But we really, really wanted to. Like, that was actually something that was planned. And we tried to execute. It just wasn't possible. So there was really no scenario here where we were trying to in any way show favoritism. It's just we had footage to work with in one scenario versus one that we didn't. And so we did this whole thing. And like, over time, when you watch Errol Spence, I want to explain something to you. Like won the first round, everyone says that. Bud was kind of just catching and looking.

There wasn't a whole lot of countering at that point. But from the second round on, he drops him, and then he drops him two more times later in the fight. But the point I wanted to make was you knew there were going to be certain fault lines around whether this fight was going to be won or lost. Every single opponent, because I'm going to talk from the perspective of what I learned from the Errol Spence tape study, and now what Bud Crawford did to solve it. I will have to go into further tape study in order to give you the best answer, but

this is the one I can give you at this moment in time. The jab upstairs is critical to everything he does, because he puts combinations behind it, he closes combinations behind it. He closes distance with it. It's punishing when it lands. It's extremely valuable. And then he mixes it up high and low, high and low, body and body. And again, he'll use the one to the body to fake something up top.

He'll go to the body to fake something that looks like it's going to go this way, then comes around. And then he closes distance. And now he's beginning to work combos on the inside. And it's this process where he's beginning to club you over and over and over and over again. So you have to stop that before it starts. You cannot bank on just absorbing punishment from Spence and then finding your moments. You have to stop that before it ever gets really going.

And he did. And he did. A couple things he did. Number one, Bud Crawford was able to change the timing on the jab. Rather than kind of trying to counter it, he would jab with him. And you would just, you never saw Spence able to like dip jab

to get out of the way. So he was catching it, catching it all the time. He would catch him moving in a linear backwards direction off the body work, kind of absorb it and catch it, and then fire a combination as he's escaping where he's vulnerable because he kind of takes risks with distance a little bit, how much he wants to close.

Sometimes Spence will switch stance on the way to an entry, but that's what he had to do to solve it. So, okay, so now there's a problem if you're Spence. Now the jab you were looking for is you're getting countered with. You can't really firmly establish it. You can't use it to then set up all the body work, the wrapping, the wrestling, the pushing, the turning, all that stuff we talked about. So you're going to the body, but now you're getting lit on fire for that even worse. And he's catching you in off-balance positions where you can't even brace when you're fully leaning back like this, right?

Trying to escape out of the pocket. So what he did was he kind of accepted a little bit of punishment early on some of those situations to catch him on the combo exit to take away the body jab. Now the jab is having a bit of an issue here. But here's the funny part. If you had told me that prior to this, oh, I guess there's Errol Spence back there.

Errol Spence is doing an interview right now behind us. Oh, it's the press conference. The press conference is going on behind us. Sorry, I did not know. Sorry, I heard Spence talking. If they say anything of note, please let me know. Okay, so the jab really got taken away in both directions, but then here's the funny part.

Again, this is what I was trying to say. If you had told me that Spence would be able to... Excuse me, if you told me that the fight was going to take place at distance, who would you favor? I would favor Crawford. More creative, makes effective use of his range, had a two-inch reach advantage. You could see he really utilizes his frame very fully and expertly. Okay, fine.

I would have believed that. But if you told me the fight was going to be on the inside, how would that look? I would have easily favored Spence. He got beat there, too. He got beat there, too. He couldn't get anything going. The defense that he was able to employ. Did you notice that Crawford had just a little bit of a shell he would create that would enable him to keep a high guard

with his shoulders kind of rolled forward like this to enable him to catch most stuff coming around, including all those hooks to the body that Spence loves to throw in combination, and yet it would keep him where he could throw tight stuff off the inside. They were catching him in the center every time he brings his head over into it. It's just hard to catch if you're anybody else where they kind of have to cover up. They already went into this fight with the right kind of defensive shell that enabled them to get off tight offense in close quarters

while catching stuff just enough to be able to get that offense off not eat too much damage just in the right space and then of course when he was backing out they would catch him there the other thing that was impressive was bud stepped on the gas when it mattered and then hit the brakes when he needed to there were times when you know the pacing of this was perfect from him. Because you had a very dangerous, very resistant opponent. You can't just march him down and try and really finish him. That's a recipe for disaster, so he didn't.

But he just continuously found all the things he was looking for and just applied it and applied it and applied it. And all of this talk about how it was going to be Spence who eventually broke Crawford, it went only the other way. Now the referee humanely intervened, but just the same, it was him that got taken to school. It was him that got slowly beaten up and then he couldn't have the same defensive shell that he wanted to. You could see he was losing confidence over the course of that bout.

Dude, they had an incredible game plan for this contest. I thought all week, you know, you thought, well, Crawford will be big enough. And then he gets on the scale yesterday. And you're like, damn, dude, that's like the best he's ever looked in this weight class. He was at the right weight. He had the right pace. They had the right defensive shell. They knew exactly where his head was going to be.

They knew what combinations to go to. They knew what the lines in the sand were that they had to win. There were certain battles that they had to win. If you're going to beat Errol Spence, you have to have an effective answer for his jab, period. You can't win if you don't do that, and they did. And then, on top of it, you got to see some of the magic of what he can do the combination punching the shot selection the accuracy how about the trap setting where he kind of pulled himself into the ropes got spence to open up because he knew he was getting desperate

then countered him with that right hook and oh by the way ladies and gentlemen, I just cannot believe what I'm about to say is true, but it's true. Bud Crawford, his normal stance is orthodox. He fought that entire fight in Southpaw. Bud Crawford broke his hand when he was younger. And rather than losing time in the gym, he just decided to practice boxing in Southpaw. And he usually fights other Southpaws as a Southpaw. Nothing there is new. I just want to point out, he just beat a guy who had three belts, was undefeated in his weight class, and if, you know, Bud had stayed with top rank, would go down and still will, I think,

as one of the best welterweights in the division's history. Again, there's going to be a long list, but he will be among the esteemed. And he did it from the Southpaw position. Now, that's not his natural one. I guess at this point, and there's been evidence of this in other cases, you could say he's even better in Southpaw in certain cases, or he could be even more dangerous in certain ways.

Yes, that's true. Like, Southpaw is not his natural stance, but it could still be one of his better ones, depending on the situation or the context. I'm just pointing out he did it from a stance that he only picked up because he just didn't want to wait for his right hand to heal and he got world-class at that too. I don't even know what to say. That is one of the most impressive feats by a combat athlete I have ever seen in my life. From the game plan, every piece of that game plan was exactly right.

Every piece of the execution was exactly right. His energy this whole time has been exactly right. The pacing, exactly right. I mean, how can one person get that many things so supremely well done all at the same time? I will tell you how. You just have to be one of the special ones. There are guys who are good. There are guys who are very good. There are guys who are elite. And then there are the special ones. He will go down. First guy to unify at 147 ever. This is his second weight class where he's now unified. When he unified in the previous weight class, he beat Julian Ndongo. He stopped him with body shots in the third round.

He has beaten the brakes off of these guys while he's collecting all of their belts. He's talking here behind me. He beat him so bad, by the way, that I don't even know if there's going to be interest in a rematch. Now, the loser can enforce it. It sounds like he's going to enforce it.

And the winner gets to pick the weight class. So there's a question of what weight class would you do it at? If it's at 147, which this fight was at 147, all the belts are on the line. You could do it at 154, and none of the belts are on the line. But if you do it at 154, it's a favor to Spence more than it's a favor to Crawford himself, even though Crawford gets to pick. So I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen.

It looks like Crawford's going to have to beat him twice. But he beat him. Of all the things you could have told me, that he was going to beat him so bad that you would think of the rematch as unnecessary, that was not something I took seriously. And I even thought, believe me, Crawford winning is no surprise. Zero surprise. And it was like, how could Crawford win? Crawford, you had to know, how many times do we say it?

50-55, 50-55. I mean, it wasn't. But, you know, in terms of rationalizing the guy's chances, you had to respect it enough to at least say, like, he's got a good chance, right? So that part is not surprising. But the depth of the absolute ass-kicking in a southpaw stance in every little dimension, in the grand scheme of the strategy and in the fine details of execution, they, Bud Crawford and his team, weaved an absolute tapestry that is, you know, just one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in terms of what a combative athlete can do. Genuinely moved.

Genuinely moved. And I know that there were folks heading into this event who were saying, like, you know, is it going to be like Mayweather Pack, yeah, where it kind of underwhelms? I mean, I guess you could say it was so one-sided that you weren't sure. You know, maybe some people checked out halfway through when the suspense was gone. But I'll tell you what, my heart was racing when he dropped him the first time.

I was like, oh, my God. Folks, when Errol Spence got dropped in the second round here tonight, that's the first time that's ever happened to him. And it happened to him three times in one night. Never happened to him before. In all the rounds he's ever fought against, all the previous champions against all those guys,

they couldn't put him on his ass, but did it three times. And probably would have done it a fourth, if not put his lights out completely if the referee did not intervene from the Southpaw stance. Dude, what? The level of accomplishment here is staggering. It's staggering, and I'm trying to process this in real time. We know that most MK fans aren't that big on boxing all the time.

We understand that, but I don't know how. I'm not asking you to rate it as highly as I am rating it in terms of what it means to me, in terms of the things I've seen. But I don't know how you can't look at that and not have extraordinary admiration for one of the best to ever do it. He's an all-time great, and he proved it tonight. And there's another story here that everyone should know. Listen, we were comparing their resumes, and we said Spence's welterweight resume was better. That is true.

I mean, not anymore, but up until tonight, that was true. That was true. His resume at welterweight was obviously better. But you've got to be careful about what that means in boxing because a lot of guys don't get the same opportunities or whatever. And listen, has Bud played every situation at every point in a way where he's, you know, anything that's ever gone wrong is someone else's fault? No, like there's obviously a measure of blame that every great fighter and fighter period,

any professional has to take for their own career. But it is true. He just wasn't able by hook or by crook to fight some of the other guys that would have told us what he was like. I mean, even when they were under top rank, it wasn't like Manny Pacquiao was out there hunting for Bud Crawford. I know they could say they were on different paths and whatever. Fine, I get it.

But I'm just saying people weren't exactly like beating the door down. Now, to Spence's credit, he was beating the door down. They both went together to make this happen. You've got to give Spence credit. He wanted the smoke. He did. And that's what we want from these guys. You've got to give Spence credit. He wanted the smoke. He did. And that's what we want from these guys. You've got to thank them. If they risk it for the

biscuit, we've got to be grateful for that. They don't have to. They go out of their way to do it. It's a good thing. Here we go. I was kind of losing my place there. But Bud Crawford, ladies and gentlemen, one of the best to ever do it.

One of the very best to ever do it. First male to unify multiple weight classes. First guy to do it at 147. Does it dominantly. A boxing genius. A boxing genius. It's like watching a prime Lionel Messi make the most incredible goal. Or LeBron or MJ or pick whoever your favorite is.

Pick the guy who you think about when you think about sports magic. I mean it. I mean it, y'all. I mean it. I mean it. Like, you know, if you stay in the fight game, it will harden your heart, you know? It's harder and harder to be impressed. It's harder to be as moved by everything. And I was overwhelmed today by Bud Crawford. Overwhelmed. Grateful that I got the opportunity to be here on a night like this and watch a man do that. Grateful that I got to exist in an era where a fight like this could be made and I got to be witness to it in real time grateful gratitude what was it like to watch the great Bud Crawford dude it was fucking awesome it was fucking awesome is what it was that awesome. I am glad that I've got to watch Errol Spence's career is up close

all these years. My admiration for him doesn't change. And again, one more time, he went out of his way to make this fight happen. He could have fought Keith Thurman. He said, no, I want to make this fight happen. Good. And my respect for him doesn't diminish. I want to say, I want to say two more parts of this. I kind of got sidetracked. One, a more technical diminish. I want to say two more parts to this. I kind of got sidetracked. One, a more technical thing, and one, a bigger one. People in the fight game, and listen, Bud has given bad interviews a lot. Not all the time.

He actually was really good this week. But have there been bad, you know, or just, you know, not the funnest Bud Crawford interview? Yes, of course. Yes, of course. But people were saying you couldn't promote the guy. No one cared. Blah, blah, blah. He's going to be one of the biggest stars in boxing after a night like tonight. He's going to be one of the biggest. It turns out he could have been this big perhaps even a while ago. And his career was, again, whoever you want to blame, but his ascension as a star was suppressed by all of that.

And look at where he has arrived tonight. Magic. Magic. Absolute magic. Technical detail, if I may, here on this night. I guess BC's doing his UFC show? Yeah? I heard that was a good show as well. He's doing it as well? Is he clothed? Does he have a shirt on? Is he sober is really another question.

Is he sober? I don't know. He's got the tie-dye MK shirt on? Dude, you know he hasn't showered in like three days. He hasn't showered in three days. That's a guarantee from old Luke. I had something to say else about Errol Spence, about the defense. I don't

remember what it is now. I'm trying to go off. I don't even have the CompuBox stats. I think he was landing 58, but it was 58% of his power punches. Like, oh my god. Folks, he did that tonight. He did that tonight to one of the best guys in this division's history.

Not like all-time, like top five. I don't mean that. But certainly, if you're a three-belt champion in this division, it's pretty good. Oh, here are the CompuBox stats. Okay. Damn, dude. Crawford crushed him.

Jesus Christ. Listen to this. Total punches to the body landed 185 for Crawford, just 96 for Spence. That's unheard of. Oh, I know what I was going to say. Crawford, 87 jabs to the body, just 33 for Spence. Not going to win that way. Power punches, 98.

60% of his power punches landed, just 63 total, 34% for Spence. This is what I was going to say. I know he got dropped, but then like the third or fourth fifth round, when you notice something like the jab's not working, the body jab's not working, the infighting's not working, the inside wrestling, how many times did you notice the lead hand of Bud

kind of steering Spence away? Like he was using Spence's weapons against him. I want to point out something. Like in the Kell Brook fight, Kell had an answer for his jab too. He was kind of jabbing over the top. And it was working at times, but Spence kind of just ate it, blocked it, you know, just different defensive responses. But then just broke through where now he's able to do enough work

and Kell can't keep up, and then he gets overwhelmed, and then he gets finished. He broke his face. He broke Kel Brooks' face. Kel Brooks' face. Okay? It worked. Ugas tried to hang in there and for a while was able to do it

but then Spence broke through. It worked. Same thing with Porter. It took longer but in the later rounds it worked. Or certainly in the 11th round, it worked but you can see this thing, the Van Ierden fight he broke through, it worked the Mikey Garcia fight, that was a little more on the outside but you get the idea

these guys would have responses for him and he would kind of catch some of it he would kind of adjust around it a little bit he would eat some of it and then he would just get to work and then 5-6 rounds in you could begin to see him take over, or at least really begin to turn it up. He never got there. Every other time he's done that, Errol Spence,

it worked. Every other time. Literally, every other time he has tried it, it worked. It didn't work on Bud. He had way too many answers in way too many positions. In way too many circumstances and on all the key battles that had to be won.

He did it. He did it. I don't know what to say. Have they said anything in the press conference of note? In my ear. Okay, they say his last fight at 147 is going to go to 154. So I guess maybe they don't trigger it. Maybe they don't trigger it.

You know, I don't know. I don't know. Who the hell is Bud going to fight? I don't even know. I don't even know who you're going to fight at 140. I mean, I don't know what Bud is. I don't even know. I don't even know who you're going to fight at 140. I mean, I guess, I mean, I don't know. I don't know what buddy, I don't even know. Oh, the rematch is going to be at 154? He might? Yeah. I mean, because you can't, if you do it at 147, it's going to look like that again, right? It's just, what would be the point? You know, what

would be the point? Wow. Guys, I don't even know what to say. I'm genuinely, it's been a long week, for better or for worse. And I had high hopes for tonight. I didn't know how it was going to go. But I had high hopes. You don't get to see fights in MMA or boxing like this very often. With the stakes and the talent involved and the history. And I had high hopes, man. And I could tell you, you could feel it here.

It was a little bit on edge. Everyone was like, oh, it's a little quiet. And it's like, yeah, but it started as a little rumble and then it turned into a roar. The crowd was absolutely electric tonight, and I think everybody was blown away by what Terrence Crawford did in Las Vegas on July 29th of 2023. Truly, I mean that. I don't have much else to add,

so let me just say this. If you haven't already watched, go watch BC's UFC reaction show. I'm sure it's very good. He was watching it at home. You can see all of our socials here. I'm honestly still trying to process it. I'm honestly a little emotional about it.

And I'm so grateful I got to be here tonight to watch somebody do something like that. I don't know if I'll ever see. I honestly don't. I mean that. I don't know if I'll ever see. I honestly don't. I mean this. I don't know if I'll ever see someone do something like that again. And I've seen guys do really special things. Izzy, flatlining potato, extremely special. Extremely special.

You know, that was really special. But for this guy to do what he did tonight, the definition in terms of BC, pound for pound, dominating a weight class, moving up, dominating a weight class, moving up, fucking dominating a weight class. Dude, what else do you fucking want? What else do you want? And stopped him. My God.

My God, dude, to be able to watch a genius perform his craft at the highest level when the stakes are the highest. And for a guy who some people said the sport didn't even want to bother with promotionally because he wasn't good for it, look at the king of boxing tonight. Look at the king of boxing tonight. My name is Luke Thomas. We are going to have an absolutely epic show on Monday. Holy shit. Monday's show is going to be one of the best MK shows in fucking history. Make no mistake about that. Make no mistake about that. BC and I are going to absolutely bang like Tui and Greg Hardy. I'm serious. It's going to be...

You think that show is going to be two hours? Just have you seen this shit is going to be two hours on Monday. You kidding me? You know how much elderly people take an L's that's going to be on Monday? Dude, Monday's show is going to be so fucking good. It's going to be so good. We have so much to get to. I didn't talk any UFC. I know Justin Gaethje

won. I saw that shit. I saw the Tony Ferguson fight too. That made me sad. We'll talk about all that stuff. We'll talk about all that stuff. I will catch you guys live Monday, 11am. I am so grateful that you all turned in to watch. I'm so grateful to be here. I'm so honored to be here. Thank you to

CBS. Thank you to Showtime. Thank you to all the folks involved who made it all happen. Thank you to everyone who watched us on CBS Sports on Thursday. The feedback was great. I'm out of here. I got a bird to catch. I love you all. I wore a purple tie for my daughter. I love you. Te amo. Violeta, te amo. Me amor. Alright. Until

next time, boys and girls, I'm out of here. Get some sleep. Holy shit.