Terence 'Bud' Crawford looking to forge legacy in Errol Spence Jr. superfight

LAS VEGAS — Timothy Bradley was preparing for his second fight with Manny Pacquiao. He'd just come off a masterpiece of a victory over Juan Manuel Marquez and was going to face Pacquiao for a second time April 14, 2014, in Las Vegas. Bradley "won" the first fight against Pacquiao in 2012, but at times it didn't feel much like a win to him.

The overwhelming majority of fans, media and boxing experts who saw the fight sided with Pacquiao, believing he'd done enough to win. But Bradley also received threats from rabid Pacquiao fans who were all-too-willing to cross the line to support their man.

It was hard, at times, for Bradley to even talk about his first fight with Pacquiao without choking up. Bradley was not his usual gregarious, jovial self as he spoke about the rematch with Pacquiao. To lighten the mood, a reporter asked him about his friend, a little-known unbeaten lightweight contender named Terence "Bud" Crawford, and Crawford's upcoming bout.

Crawford had just left the U.S. to fly to Scotland, where on March 1, 2014, he'd meet Ricky Burns in Glasgow. Burns was a gritty, tough guy with a 36-2-1 who held the the WBO lightweight title. He was never considered a superstar, but he was popular in the U.K. because he was local and he seemed willing to go to the depths of hell in order to win.

Bradley chuckled when he was asked about Crawford fighting on the road with just about every person in the arena, and country, vehemently rooting against him.

"Aw, man, Terence, he don't care about none of that," Bradley said. "He's a winner and all he cares about is winning. And believe me, he's going to come back here a winner. And pretty soon, y'all are going to be writing about everything he does."

At the time, Crawford was 26 with a 22-0 record that included 16 knockouts.

As Bradley predicted, Crawford was in full control throughout the fight and won a wide unanimous decision to bring home the championship. Never one to use two words when one would do, Crawford returned to the U.S. a champion, but he wasn't giddy. It was what he expected of himself and to him, there was no reason to get giddy when doing what was expected.

"I got a lot of things I want to do in this sport," Crawford said upon his return to the U.S. "I'm going to leave a legacy."

On Saturday at T-Mobile Arena, Crawford will have the opportunity to cement his legacy as the greatest welterweight and, perhaps, the greatest boxer of his generation. He'll meet unified champion Errol Spence Jr. in the main event of a Showtime PPV card for the undisputed title and the privilege of calling himself the best welterweight of his era.

Sugar Ray Robinson is most known as a welterweight, and he's widely considered the greatest fighter of all time. Other luminaries in the division were Henry Armstrong, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran, Barney Ross, Kid Gavilán, Pernell Whitaker, Jose Napoles, Thomas Hearns, Emile Griffith, Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya.

A win over Spence, a hard-hitting former U.S. Olympian who is also unbeaten, will serve to put Crawford alongside those names above as the best welterweights ever.

"It feels great and I feel very motivated," Crawford told Yahoo Sports. "I've said it before, but I feel like this is my time. This is my era, and after [Saturday], everyone is going to see something special in Terence Crawford."

A southpaw, Spence came out of the Olympics and was lauded as the next Sugar Ray Leonard in terms of skills and all-around ability. He was a welterweight from Day 1 and goes into the bout with Crawford with a 28-0 record and 22 KOs.

Crawford was a lightweight to begin his career, but won the lightweight belt and moved up to become undisputed super lightweight champion. After unifying the 140-pound belts, he climbed to welterweight, where he's gone 7-0 with seven KOs. But he wasn't able to get one of the superstar welterweights in the ring with him until now. Guys like Pacquiao, Keith Thurman, Miguel Cotto and Danny Garcia went in another direction.

So Crawford did what he could with who he had in front of him. And while he did what elite fighters are supposed to be — beat the guys he was expected to beat — he wasn't getting a lot of momentum. He was with Top Rank and there was never much momentum toward making a bout with Spence. A vocal contingent of fans accused him of ducking Spence, which was always ridiculous but was a narrative that nonetheless picked up steam.

"A lot of people look at who I fought in the welterweight division and they tried to throw salt on their names," Crawford said. "They tried to make it seem those guys weren't great fighters, or good fighters, or however you want to characterize it. They made it like I fought nothing but tomato cans my whole career. But I just let them talk and I let them say what they wanted. But on [Saturday], I'll prove it wasn't just those fighters [who weren't good enough to beat me], but it will be Spence, as well."

The talk about a fight between the two unbeaten superstars intensified with each successive win by one or the other. But because, as Crawford pointed out, he wasn't getting the fighters with the marquee value that he was calling out, a perception built that he was taking an easy path.

Those in boxing knew it wasn't true. And while Spence got plenty of hype coming out of the Olympics, it took a long time for Crawford to earn recognition as not just a good champion but as one of the all-time greats.

Those in boxing, however, knew for a while.

"Crawford doesn’t have a lot of holes in his armor," highly regarded trainer Stephen "Breadman" Edwards said. " ... He is one of the best fighters I've ever seen."

Trainer Virgil Hunter, who was in the corner as Andre Ward put together a perfect record and a Hall of Fame career, echoed Edwards. Spence is the naturally bigger fighter and has a 78.6 knockout percentage. Crawford's KO percentage is 76.9 and, of course, 100% at welterweight.

He is not some frail runner whom Spence can physically impose his will upon, as Hunter once saw first-hand in the gym.

"I had the fortune to spend one day in the gym with Terence, [and] his physical strength is underrated," Hunter said. "The way he is genetically built, the way he has stayed in the gym for his entire career and has never gotten out of condition, brings a snap to his punch. He has a real buggy-whip snap to his punches. You can feel a snap. He was a wrestler early on, and I’ve watched him tussle with big guys and get them down to the ground. He is built from the feet up with his physical strength. He can generate a lot of power."

Crawford has always had a chip on his shoulder, and sees doubters and critics sometimes even where they don't exist.

But he's ready.

"I want the best version of Errol Spence that has ever walked Planet Earth, and I'll show you," Crawford said. He'll adjust, but one thing he believes in is his soul. Spence simply won't walk in and overpower him.

"He thinks he’s gonna bulldoze me and break me, but he’s gonna have to show me," Crawford said. "All of that talk is fuel to the fire that’s already burning. He’s gonna have to prove everything that he’s saying come fight night."