Before the formal announcement of Errol Spence Jr.–Terence Crawford, before thousands of super fight-starved boxing fans descended on Sin City, before the bells and whistles that come with a major fight week, before the two best 147-pound fighters in the world squared off for welterweight—and perhaps pound-for-pound—supremacy, few believed it would happen. Negotiations were getting too sticky. Spence was getting too big. Crawford was more likely ticketed for another ho-hum title defense. Spence was preparing to drop his belts and move up to 154 pounds.
Who didn’t believe it: Spence. Despite an appealing matchup against longtime rival Keith Thurman waiting for him at junior middleweight, Spence was hell-bent on remaining at 147 pounds until a deal for the Crawford fight could be completed.
“I wasn’t close at all to giving up at all,” says Spence. “Even my handlers was telling me to either move up or move on. It’s too hard of negotiation. But I stuck to the negotiation. I said, ‘No, we can make this fight happen.’ Eventually it happened. It definitely took a while, but it happened now, and I feel like this fight is the biggest fight, not only in a decade but probably the last 20 years.”
This week, Spence sat down with Sports Illustrated to discuss Crawford, his lengthy layoff and whether he is the same fighter since a near-tragic car accident in 2019.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
John Locher/AP Photo
Sports Illustrated: You could have made good money moving up in weight to fight Keith Thurman. Why stay?
Errol Spence Jr.: Because it’s more about this being a legacy-defining fight. This is just a great fight period. And I feel like I would’ve had [Crawford’s] name over my head if I would’ve moved up. Everybody would’ve still put my name with his name and the same thing with him. They would’ve put my name with his name. I feel like just to all the naysayers that are saying different things, they were saying he going to beat me and saying that he’s a better fighter than me. I’d rather put that to rest come July 29th on Showtime pay-per-view. I’m willing to put everything on the line, do everything it takes to win this fight. Everybody’s got to make sure they tune in. It’s going to be one for the books.
SI: Do you remember the last time you were an underdog?
ES: I think I was for the Kell Brook fight [in 2017].
SI: Does it feel strange?
ES: It’s motivation. I use everything like that as motivation. When people have me as the underdog or people saying he has more tools than me or he’s more versatile than me, all that sounds good, but I relate to it. Just like in basketball with the San Antonio Spurs. They’re not really that appealing. Younger guys would choose Kevin Garnett over Tim Duncan because Kevin Garnett is more flashy, and he’s more easy on the eyes, but the Spurs are more just getting the job done. Duncan was called Mr. Fundamentals, and that’s what I am. I am fundamentally sound. I do everything by the book and I still look good.
SI: You have been off since April of last year. Any concern about ring rust?
ES: There’s no concerns at all. As long as I’m feeling good, I’m going to put on a great show. I had a layoff, but it’s not due to an injury. The last two times I had layoffs it was from a car accident and because of an eye injury [in 2021]. I feel like that was a lot worse, especially the car accident. I was recovering mentally, and not only mentally but physically, and I still took a tough fight [against Danny Garcia]. This time I feel like I’m well rested. I’ve been spending a lot of time with my family and just doing the right things outside the ring to help me focus on this fight. I feel like it happened at a great time. I’m in a great head space and I just can’t wait to show everybody what I’m capable of.
SI: A lot of people wonder whether you are the same fighter since the accident. Are you?
ES: I would answer by just saying look at my body of work after the car accident, after the eye injury. After everything that happened, my body of work speaks for itself. People can speculate or say what they want, but come Saturday I’m going to put on another spectacular showing and show everybody why I am the best fighter in the world. Why I’m the best fighter at 147 pounds and why I will go down as a great, especially in the welterweight division.
SI: Your gym these days is a pretty cool place. You have Anthony Joshua, Jermell Charlo, Ryan Garcia, Frank Martin. What’s it like to work out around that kind of talent?
ES: It’s great. It pushes you hard because everybody had or has fights coming up. Frank Martin, he just had a fight. Anthony Joshua’s fighting in August. Ryan has a fight coming up. Jermell has a fight coming up. Everybody’s training hard. Everybody’s motivated by each other because you see everybody had different time slots, but coming into that gym. I’m seeing Anthony Joshua. I’m seeing him spar. I’m seeing him work out. Ryan Garcia sparring and him seeing me work out.
Of course you’re extra motivated by seeing these guys. You want to keep working and you want to look good because another world champion or ex-world champion or just a spectacular athlete is in the gym. He’s watching you work out. It’s definitely motivating just being around other great athletes and just picking each other’s brains and talking to each other and figuring out different things and figuring out what they do to make themselves better. And you tell them the same thing.
SI: Your trainer, Derrick James, has a lot on his plate with all these guys. How do you think he has handled it?
ES: Derrick’s doing it well. Everybody, like I said, had different time slots. I work out—and it’s 100-something degrees in the gym—so I work out in the morning at eight, nine o’clock. Josh [Anthony Joshua] would come after that. Frank comes in, and then Ryan Garcia comes in. Everybody had different time slots, so he could focus on each guy and make sure that everybody get everything instead of just everybody coming to the gym together and everybody’s training at the same time and he can’t work with everybody the same way. It’s worked.
