Errol Spence Jr made headlines recently when he described his training camp for the undisputed welterweight clash with Terence Crawford as “trash.”
Spence was comprehensively beaten by Crawford in 2023, suffering two knockdowns before being stopped in the ninth round. The following year, he parted ways with long-time trainer Derrick James, with the pair also becoming embroiled in a two-way lawsuit.
Responding to Spence’s comments on The Last Stand podcast, James appeared to acknowledge that preparations were not ideal, explaining that the gym was busier than usual while he was also overseeing training camps for Anthony Joshua and Frank Martin.
“This is what I’ll say. We weren’t able to do everything that we normally do to prepare for a fight. The gym was busy at that time … so it was a different space. The whole protocol changed right after that [fight] – no kids in the gym, no this or that.
“If that’s his perception… I had two other training camps going on at the same time. They never trained at the same time, but they were going on simultaneously. I will say that. If ‘trash’ is his perception, there’s nothing I can do about it … It was never like I was training all three of them at the same time.”
James did, however, refuse to be blamed for the lack of sparring.
“It was [disappointing] to hear … He said he didn’t spar. No, he did spar for two weeks, and supposedly he got injured within the last week of the sparring.
“So he couldn’t spar for the next eight weeks because he suffered an injury. That’s the only thing that was really different – he didn’t spar because he was injured … [After the injury] his father said, no sparring, he’s gonna save it till the fight.”
Despite their disagreement over the camp, James was quick to stress that nothing should detract from Crawford’s performance on the night.
“This takes nothing away from what Terence Crawford did.”
Spence returns to the ring on July 25 when he takes on Tim Tszyu, with Ronnie Shields now serving as his trainer.
