I think Crawford was always a welterweight boiling down to lightweight. He carries the size well naturally but I feel this is his weight class. Spence I feel is a junior middleweight boiling down so yeah he's a bigger guy.
I think the style of Crawford is all wrong for Spence. Spence hits hard but he's not exactly Felix Trinidad as far as accuracy and certainly not power. He's a hard hitting accumulation guy not a one hitter quitter guy I feel. I think he's good in close and has a good body attack but he is slow on his feet, comes forward in straight lines and is very easy to hit with the straight right. He offers next to no head movement. Crawford is about the most versatile and complete fighter in the sport and has great IQ. He will be able to move around Spence and tag him all night I feel and Spence will not be able to get set enough. I see Crawford winning a clear cut decision around 117-111.
About a year ago I got a little insight from a source that's reliable. A friend of mine works in the trade (works for everlast and I believe dabbles in matchmaking) and is close to a number of fighters and managers personally told a close friend of mine that Crawford and Spence did spar earlier last year I believe. I've not heard too much about the specifics of where it was/who was closer to a fight etc; but the detail that I do know is that Crawford lit him up. That it was a couple rounds of Crawford just him boxing his ears off and then the last couple rounds was Crawford walking him down and giving him something of a beating.
Now this may or may not be true and maybe not such a big deal. Some guys just use sparring for different purposes but it's quite interesting when you see Spence talk about potential rivals he kind of shies away about Crawford or just says something like "Oh he hasn't beaten anybody his resume sucks" without sounding convinced and just generally unsure of himself and has excuses why a Crawford fight can't/shouldn't happen. Look at Crawford and he's the opposite and I saw an interview (you can probably find on youtube for his recent camp life episodes) when asked about potential rivals in the division he says Porter would likely be tough, that Danny Garcia is good and has history in the amateurs, that Thurman is a top guy with a difficult style and then Spence his tone kind of changes and then he sounds like he wants to say something but stops short. He's been very consistent with this and put Stephen A. Smith in his place when he said "On the eye test Spence is better than Thurman", Crawford said Thurman was the best and the eye test often lies.
