1 min read

COLD IN JULY

Greatness in boxing has a certain energy to it. You can feel it in your gut and see it in front of your eyes as you watch the dramatic unfolding action of a live broadcast becomes instant history and imagine future generations watching these moments  ten, twenty, fifty years down the line wishing they had been there to witness when it was first written.

Nothing can re-create the energy of first moments in sports where the competitors reach for new summits to raise the bar and etch their own names in the history books. Just a few hours ago, Terence Crawford did just that, becoming undisputed champion across multiple divisions, the first male fighter in the four-belt era to do so. Having so expertly and clinically dispatched his previously undefeated opponent, Erroll Spence Jr, in the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas without seeming to break a sweat I think it's safe to say Crawford is the only man in the northern hemisphere this summer to be cold in July, so ice cool was his performance and it was truly a privilege to see the Omaha native make history.

When title bouts between two generational fighters such as Crawford and Spence Jr are closer 50-50 fights you often find yourself as a spectator, feeling far more tense as the action plays out and the rounds fly by and where you can't really call which way the final outcome might be decided. It says a lot about Crawford's phenomenal skill and physical conditioning in Las Vegas tonight that his emphatic fight plan and execution felt more like watching some incredible hypercar such as a Hennessey Venom or Bugatti Chiron speed off into the distant horizon, leaving Erroll for dust and the rest of us gasping in awe of his genius inside the ring.

It must be a luxury to be so supremely exceptional at your craft and know that your only opponent will be time itself.

But even in that match-up, I'm not entirely convinced Crawford wouldn't win.

The man is made of different stuff.