Errol Spence Jr. vs. Terence Crawford fight: A history of rare

When Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford step into the ring on Saturday night, they’ll do so while making history. Throughout all of boxing history, there have only been 12 previous unification bouts at welterweight, but most of those clashes have been historic and memorable affairs. Spence and Crawford are fighting to crown the first undisputed welterweight champion in the four-belt era.

Spence enters as the WBC, WBA and IBF champion while Crawford brings his WBO title to the fight. Both men are undefeated in their impressive careers and occupy high places on every legitimate pound-for-pound ranking in the sport. This is a fight that has been talked about for years and is now finally happening as arguably the most important fight of 2023.

While the list of welterweight title unification bouts is short, the fight with Crawford will be the third time Spence’s name has been placed on it. Spence unified his WBC title with the IBF when he defeated Shawn Porter in 2019. He then added the WBA title by beating Yordenis Ugas in April 2022.

This is Crawford’s first unification bout at welterweight, but he fought in two during his time at junior welterweight, where he eventually became undisputed four-belt champion.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at five of the biggest welterweight unification bouts in boxing history.

“Sugar” Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns

Having avenged his loss to Roberto Duran and regained the WBC crown a few months shy of a year earlier, Leonard found his way back into the ring with another member of the “Fabulous Four” on Sept. 16, 1981 for a fight dubbed “The Showdown.” Hearns was long and lanky and hit with tremendous ferocity. He’d won the WBA championship with a knockout of Jose Cuevas in August 1980 and had defended it successfully three times with each win coming by knockout.

The fight started slowly but ramped up in intensity as the rounds wore on. Leonard…