It was August 2017 and Terence Crawford had just been crowned the undisputed junior welterweight champion of the world.
The plan was for him to move up to welterweight and “Bud” knew at that very moment that he would be on a collision course with Errol Spence Jr., who was the IBF welterweight world champion at the time.
“Spence has been on my mind the very moment I moved up into the division,” Crawford admitted in Episode 1 of Showtime’s All Access: Spence vs. Crawford, ahead of their July 29 mega fight for the undisputed welterweight championship of the world. “The fans and the media weren’t calling for Shawn Porter to fight Terence Crawford when Shawn Porter had a title. The fans weren’t calling for [Yordenis] Ugas to fight Terence Crawford when he had a title. They were saying ‘Oh, fight Errol.’”
Yet, through the years, Spence and Crawford each wound up defeating Porter. Spence did it via split decision in September 2019 to become a unified welterweight titleholder and Crawford produced a 10-round TKO of Porter to defend his WBO welterweight title in November 2021. Spence would defeat Ugas by 10-round TKO to add the WBA welterweight title to his collection, making him a three-belt holder at 147 pounds.
All this being said, Crawford’s team has been looking forward to July 29 for a long time.
“After we moved to 147 pounds, to be honest with you, man, we’ve been licking our chops from day one,” Crawford’s trainer Brian McIntyre said about yearning for a fight with Spence. “Them guys were just getting us more prepared to step in the ring July 29 because this is the fight we always wanted.”
He added: “Heading into this fight is like graduating from college. It’s like walking across the stage and you grabbing that diploma.”
Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) respects that his fellow undefeated welterweight champion Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) didn’t move up to junior middleweight.
“Errol could have easily moved up to 154 and said, ‘Man, I’m not fighting that dude,’” Crawford tacked on.
“I commend him for staying at 147 and doing what he said he was going to do and that’s fight Terence Crawford, and I respect him for that.”