A fight years in the making ended after nine rounds as Terence Crawford became the undisputed welterweight champion of the world. Despite the hype, the fight never felt particularly close. Crawford sent Spence Jr. to the mat three times before knocking him down for good in the ninth. The fight was called by referee Harvey Dock as Crawford cornered a visibly defeated Spence Jr. and unleashed a volley of unanswered, undefended blows. While Spence Jr. later protested the call, it was clear that unless he magically KO'd Crawford in the remaining frames, he was never going to be called the winner.
"Like I said before, I only dreamed of being a world champion," Crawford told reporters after the fight. "I'm an overachiever. Nobody believed in me when I was coming up, but I made everybody a believer. It means everything because of who I took the belts from." Spence Jr., for his part, was gracious in defeat. "He was the better man tonight," Spence Jr. said. "He was using his jab, and my timing was a little bit off. He was catching me in between shots. … I make no excuses." However, Spence Jr. also confirmed that he would be triggering the rematch clause in the fight contract. "Hell yeah, we got to do it again," Spence said. "I'm going to be a lot better. It's going to be a lot closer."
Read More: Jermell Charlo places $25,000 bet on Errol Spence Jr.
Eminem Sets The Stage For Crawford Victory
Earlier in the week, Crawford had tried to land a major addition to his corner. Speaking on Instagram, the 40-0 fighter mused about getting a big-name performer to perform a live walk-out for him. Ay, you know what I was thinking — crazy shit — it’d be dope to have like Eminem walk me out or something like that,” he said. “I don’t think he ever walked nobody out,” Crawford suggested. Eminem saw the video and responded in the comments section. “This is 2 crazy.!!! You r 1 of my favorite boxers rn!” In turn, Crawford doubled down, “Pull Up Em! Let’s do some legendary shit 🐐 x 🐐.”
And indeed he did. The Detroit was on hand to perform none other than "Lose Yourself" as Crawford entered the ring. However, it's not the first time that Eminem has made a surprise appearance this month. During a concert on The Mathematics Tour in Detroit, Sheeran announced that he wanted to play something for the hometown crowd. And so, he began to play “Lose Yourself". Sheeran got through the first verse just fine. And then seemingly out of nowhere, Eminem appeared on stage rapping.
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