Former Trainer Derrick James Discloses Errol Spence’s Pre-Crawford Rib Injury from Sparring

Three years after Errol Spence Jr. was decisively beaten by Terence Crawford in a bid for the undisputed welterweight championship, former trainer Derrick James has disclosed that Spence entered the bout with an existing injury.

Spence, previously unbeaten, was overwhelmed by Crawford in a performance widely regarded as one of the era’s most dominant, ending his tenure as the premier 147-pound fighter.

Following a lengthy hiatus, Spence is scheduled to compete again this month. In recalling that pivotal evening, the fighter—known as ‘The Truth’—cited a disjointed training camp and inadequate communication with James, who was then his coach.

“Nope [I had no conversations with James about how to go about the fight]. That camp was bulls**t. I did no sparring. The guys didn’t fit – I had no southpaws in there to spar. It was all out of whack.”

Conversely, during an appearance on The Last Stand Podcast, James countered those assertions, stating that Spence worked with switch-hitters instead of southpaws and that a rib injury limited his sparring sessions.

“He had two guys that were switch hitters [as sparring partners]both of them fought left-handed, right-handed, and supposedly one of them injured him.

“I didn’t see when it happened and he didn’t acknowledge that he was injured, but the next following week we sparred, then we took a day off from sparring, then we sparred against on Saturday.

“So, that’s when I realised, they was like ‘hey man, his ribs are hurt,’ I said, ‘listen, you need to go get that looked at, checked out,’ and I guess he did or he didn’t. I don’t know because I didn’t go with him but we just kept working.

“His father said he’s not sparring, that he was going to save it for the fight. His father is the one that said no sparring, and he was complaining about the way the other guys were sparring, so that’s who it was.

“The funny thing about it was, the week of being in Vegas I said that we can spar a little bit but spar with one of your buddies that won’t shoot body shots if you have an injury. And he said ‘No, I’m not doing that, I’m not sparring. No.’ So he wouldn’t even do it then.”

Spence, now trained by Ronnie Shields, will face Tim Tszyu on July 26 in Australia, aiming to prove himself a contender for super-welterweight world titles and revive his pursuit of champion status in a second division.

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