Spence-Crawford could become a welterweight classic when they meet Saturday

LAS VEGAS: The person once known as the “baddest man on the planet” stood between Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford at Thursday’s news conference, and just the mere presence of Mike Tyson further cemented the magnitude of their showdown.

Both undefeated fighters meet Saturday night, the winner unifying all four welterweight championships for the first time in boxing’s four-belt era that began in 2004.

Spence (28-0, 22 knockouts) already owns the WBC, WBA and IBF titles, and Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) holds the WBO belt. Crawford is a minus-146 favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

“I haven’t seen things like this in over 30 years — two of the best fighters in the world to decide who is truly the best,” Tyson said.

This fight has been compared in many corners to so many other classic welterweight matchups such as two between Robert Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980, Leonard and Thomas Hearns the following year, Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez in 1993 and Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya in 2000.

The boxers understand the buildup to the fight, each saying a victory would be his career highlight.

“This is going to be legendary,” Spence said. “This is going to be iconic. People are going to talk about this fight 30, 40 years from now when they talk about legendary fights. When they talk about Leonard and Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler ... they’re going to talk about this fight the same way.”

The fight sold out quickly, and on the secondary market, the cheapest tickets are well more than $300, especially if someone is interested in actually having a seat and not standing for three hours.

Much of the excitement leading into the fight was because of how long it took to come together, the appetite for