I find Boots extremely impressive. Just an intense talent. But objectively speaking, he still has a few things he needs to work on. Like every fighter -- even the greatest champions -- he does make some mistakes. Now, going into the fight last night, it seemed to me that Bud made some more than Spence. In previous fights, there were times he threw some punches a bit wide. I know that one could hold he did this to draw offense from his opponent, in order to fire counter-punches. That's valid. But he has gotten clipped a few times, for example by Gamboa, a crafty, fast fighter of very high quality. Spence didn't make as many mistakes, largely because he almost exclusively did his A game. Yet there was little evidence he could adjust.
Last night, Crawford's accuracy was unreal. More, he not only took advantage of Spence's error of staying directly in front of him, he punched through Spence's combinations with beautiful short, straight punches. Spence anticipated being the stronger man. But Bud seemed more powerful when they were tied up, partly because his center of balance was a little lower, and largely because he is much stronger than Spence thought.
Spence's trainer failed him by not having a B game. I'm not saying it would have, or even could have, changed the outcome. For there have been very, very few fighters that I've ever seen that could shift their tactics mid-round in the way Crawdord can. And you really can't teach that.
At this point, I think Bud would not only exploit the errors Boots sometimes makes -- and I'm not suggesting there are many -- but he would force him to make more. Bud is used to performing on the Big Stage. Boots hasn't been there yet. He needs to build up on that type of experience.
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