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This fight definitely did not go the way that most of us thought it would go. At. All. A Terence Crawford whom we had seen dominate opponents and no.1 contenders, never faced someone who seemed to have similar power to him. Crawford entered the fight being 17-0 in championship bouts, with the last 10 ending in KO victories. Spence seemed different, but what we got was a spectacle we didn’t think we’d even marvel on happening, however, let’s talk about it a little after the rest of the fight card:

Yeonis Tellez Def. Sergio Garcia – KO, Round 3 –

A very short but surprising fight. At 154, the weight division this fight took place, we have Jermell Charlo running the competition as the undisputed champion at the moment. Not much competition really is up in that weight class, besides a Brian Castano, Tim Tzsyu, and an aging Danny Garcia and Jessie Vargas, although Sergio Garcia had a few chances, the Spaniard has come up short, but has a good long-distance fighting style. Yeonis at a semi smaller advantage is a bit of a power puncher knocking out 4 of his 5 wins via KO. The fight seemed like it would go the distance, as Sergio Garcia kept his distance and won the first round controlling the pace, but Yeonis proved persistent, using his forward pacing and cutting devastating right uppercuts and inching more and more into that open space. In the 3rd round Tellez hits Garcia with a powerful right hand that would knock any fighter out, however it did stun Garcia, Tellez pounced and sent him to the mound, scoring the KO win. It’s impressive to beat a fighter that’s closer to the top of the contender list, but its even more impressive to beat a fighter with more than 30 fights under his belt in this weight division. The Cuban up and comer will definitely be looked at, but lets hope he improves his defensive and technical ability enough to withstand the more psychological pacing of the higher fighters.

Alexandro Santiago Def. Nonito Donaire – UD, for the vacant WBC Bantamweight World Championship –

Donaire at this point in his career has absolutely nothing left to prove. A career spanning now 50 fights, 42 wins, 20 years, and a total of 11 championships (Not including interim or regional). Donaire is something special and at 40 years old he still seems very passionate about his career, yet is starting to slow down physically, as any fighter would at that age. Alexandro Santiago is the other side of the coin, at 27 years old, he boasts 36 fights with 28 victories, 3 losses, and 5 draws. Santiago came in being 4-1 in his last 5 fights, this was a fight that had small build up, but big implications. With now Super Bantamweight, Naoya Inoue vacating the WBC Bantamweight championship in order to move up, the title has been up for grabs since January, however, these 2 fighters have proven the most worthy. A semi close fight, as Donaire and Santiago had moments where both would exchange blows and go 2-for-2. However, the quick and rapid movement of Santiago as well as the perfect timing of counterpunching proved to be the factor in this fight. Donaire has never been known for defense, but did stop a few vital blows that seemed to have some power thrown behind them, but unfortunately it did prove too much for Donaire as it still was close even in the scorecards, but Santiago comes away with the belt, while we question if the future hall of famer Nonito Donaire will hang up the gloves, or if we may see a rematch between the end of this year and potentially next year.

Isaac Cruz Def. Giovanni Cabrera – SD, WBC/WBA Lightweight Title Eliminator –

After a controversial loss to Devin Haney, Isaac Cruz wanted to build momentum back up and has he so. At only 25, having already 28 fights under his belt, with 25 wins, Cruz has gone up against giants in the Lightweight division and has a good track record against them. His last 3 fights have been for a title winning 2, and losing the controversial one against Haney. Cabrera is an up and comer as well, being trained by Freddie Roach, a legend in the industry, Cabrera has built up an undefeated 21-0-0 record leading into this fight. Cabrera tried to control the fight by keeping his distance against the smaller and more powerful Cruz, yet it looked more like Cabrera was fighting at a pace that was inviting Cruz to push forward and counter punch to Cabrera’s wide open right side. Cabrera, as many orthodox fighters, have a weaker left side of their defense which invites the devastating right overhand of Cruz to connect onto Cabrera more times than not. The judges saw a close fight, but in reality I’d give Cabrera 3 maybe 4 rounds max while Cruz seemed the more persistent fighter, despite his emotions getting the best of him by getting 1 point deducted for headbutting.

Terence Crawford Def. Errol Spence Jr. – TKO Round 7, IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO Championships –

This fight was a ridiculous fever dream. We all thought the 39-0 Crawford would finally meet his match after a 28-0 Spence after beating Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Mike Garcia, Lamont Peterson, Kell Brook, the list goes on and on, and yet somehow Spence looked like an amateur in comparison. Crawford, came in more prepared than anyone we’ve ever seen coming into a big time fight. From the get go, the defense was impeccable, the counter punching was even better, and the hits that needed to land were landing on Spence in a more capable manner than we thought. Spence was vulnerable and Crawford showed it and exposed it to the fullest. Not to take away any credit from Spence but if Crawford moves up a division, which is rumored, maybe Spence will reign, but until then it seems more fighters will be thrown Crawford’s way and that 40-0 record means something. Crawford showed he was the better man putting Spence down 3 times in the first time of his career and having the reality hit the hardest when it did. Crawford is number 1 pound-for-pound and we will see what victim lies next for Bud Crawford, a rumored mega fight at 154 against Jermall Charlo, or Crawford simply moving up to that division. As for Spence, it’s back to the drawing board, though it seems we may have a rematch in our sights, I fear it may be more of the same. Spence needs to improve his defense and strength by a lot, but if Crawford is the tank he is coming into the rematch, it might be Spence’s second loss in sight.