6.8.23 - JR Interview with Errol Spence Jr.

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. It's the JR Sportbrief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We got a big fight, a mega fight, a giant fight coming next month, July 2019. Mobile, Las Vegas, we're being joined right now by Errol Spence Jr., welterweight champion, getting ready to take on Terrence Burt Crawford. Errol, how you doing, man? You good? I'm doing great, man. Can't complain, healthy, feels good.

Everything's great. Man, people have been looking for this fight for a very, very long time. Now that we're more than a month away from it, what is your preparation looking like? Just a lot of training, a lot of recovery, some risk, but still getting my media stuff done and still be able to promote this fight so we can make it the biggest fight, you know, probably, hopefully as big as Pacquiao Floyd. Man, well, are we going to talk more about the welterweights and you trying to get that one last belt from Bud?

Errol Spence is joining us here at the JR Sportbrief Show on CBS Sports Radio. That's the last welterweight belt for you to get your hands on. This fight has been a long time coming. What can fight fans and then just folks in general who aren't giant boxing fans look forward to, man? You're the bigger fighter.

You've had no problem calling Crawford out as being a smaller dude. What can we expect with this fight? I feel like people can expect, you know, this is an old school classic fight. These are fights, you know, my dad and, you know, all the people I've talked to and they seen on Fox and CBS and seen on network TV, you know, when they was kids and they was watching Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearn and Marla Hagler and all these guys, you know, Shavette, Pernell Whittaker, and watching all these guys. I feel a whole year of trinity, you know, just just naming a few guys and watching these fights and seeing how classic fights they was and just seeing the skill set and the level and the talent that not just one fighter has but both fighters has, you know, it's going to be great. Well, listen, man, you're undefeated 28-0.

He's undefeated 39-0. You mentioned Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. That fight was cool, but we saw that fight a little bit later. What does it say that you guys throughout all of this were still able to get this fight together while y'all are still in your primes?

Oh, I feel like I feel like, you know, it's great. I feel like it was, I mean, it was just a lot of, you know, discipline and me wanting to set out to, I wanted to fight Sanders Crawford. Like, even when he dropped out of negotiations and went off the fight, the owner, whatever the dude's name was, he fought, he fought to be a prime or whatever. He fought the guy, you know, I still stood there and, you know, still waited for him to get from the fight to go back in negotiations and, you know, basically, you know, gave him some of the sort that he was asking for.

Errol Spence Jr. is joining us here at the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. We don't always get those fights in boxing. Sometimes the politics get involved and we miss out on the big ones or they may come later. What does that say about the sport in a general sense? You know, it's not like, you know, this is the Super Bowl.

This is the best versus the best. It's not like, you know, even something like the UFC where you got a matchmaker saying, hey, you can do this or you can just hit the bricks. Does it hurt boxing that sometimes the contracts and some of these issues get in the way? Oh, I don't think so, because, I mean, you got some guys that, like, UFC is different because, you know, they just make you, you don't really have a choice. Like, you're going to fight or you're going to sit out five years. So, I mean, with boxing just more, you know, I think boxing turned into more of a business than boxing. Yeah, you know, it hurt for the fans and things like that, but for the boxers to turn more into a business. Errol Spence Jr. is joining us here at the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio.

Great things come to those who wait. When you think about the fight stylistically, people are going to look at you to jab him to death. I heard you describe the fight as taking a look at you being Tim Duncan and then him being a little bit closer to a Kevin Garnett, a little bit more wild, a little bit more out there. What do you see taking place in the fight?

Is that an accurate description as to how things are going to take place? We got fundamentals here versus little wildness? I mean, Garnett had a little bit of fundamentals. He was a little wild personality-wise, but he had some fundamentals. I'm just saying as a standpoint, Tim Duncan, of course, he got talent. He got to have time to be in the NBA, but he was more using his skills, you know, using his fundamentals, you know, using his base and just, you know, just fundamentally beating a lot of guys, you know, using the backboard, doing things that a lot of guys who were flashy, you know, wouldn't do, you know.

He wasn't, you know, using a whole bunch of energy. He was more, you know, conserving his energy, making it look good, but making it look easy to, you know, a little more Garnett. He was more flashy. Garnett appeals more to the younger guys, like even my dad. My dad used to watch the Spurs all the time, and me as a kid, I'd be like, Spurs, they were born, like, I don't know, like watching them, like, they were born as hell until I got older and just realizing what Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are doing in the whole system of the thing. Then you got guys with Garnett, they attract more to, you know, young guys, you know, because he's more just flashy with it and easier to see, like, man, he's dunking and talking crap and, you know, just acting, you know, acting cool. So, you know, as you get older, you like Tim Duncan a lot, you know, you appreciate what he done in the sport. You're like, man, okay, you may look easy, you know, so that's what I see.

I see Garnett is more flashier, and Tim Duncan, he's not as flashy, but he's still effective and more effective than Garnett. Well, you mentioned growing up in Texas and watching the Spurs, I know you got a lot of family in New York, you mentioned your dad, correct me if I'm wrong, he's from New York, he's Jamaican, isn't he? Yeah, he was born, he's from Jamaica, he moved to New York when he was 15. You're gonna have a lot of, you're gonna have a lot of New Yorkers checking this fight out, especially, I know everybody back on the island where you fought before, and then also the boogie down Bronx, where I'm from. Talk about the work ethic of a Jamaican, having that background from your dad, I'm very familiar, man. We will watch my dad work hard, man, like, even, like I said, I didn't appreciate it really, until I got older, I got like 20 something years old to, you know, just seeing him doing the graveyard shift at work and, you know, coming home 11 o'clock, then resting a little bit and taking me to the gym after I come home from school at three, then going back to work at like 7 p.m., and then I, you know, I just got good, so, you know, I try to reward them for, you know, their dedication, their hard work, because they put in the same dedication and hard work, you know, with me, so I try to show them and try to, you know, get them certain stuff when, you know, my fight over with or, you know, around the clock, you know, just showing that I'm appreciative of them.

Well, listen, man, you talk about when you got good, I think you've exceeded being good, you're certainly one of the best. Errol Spence Jr. is here with us, the JR Sport Brief show on CBS Sports Radio, you talk about this being a legacy fight against Bud, what do you want your legacy to be? There's one other welterweight belt there, you want to move up and wait, is that just to check another box?

Do you want to hang out in the next division? What are your thought process going to this fighting and beyond? My thought process is basically to keep winning and to get out this game, you know, and be able to retire, and while I'm retired, still be able to do the same things that I was able to do when I was still fighting.

Errol Spence Jr. is here with us, CBS Sports Radio, the JR Sport Brief show. You mentioned your car accident from a few years ago, we know about your eye injury, have those things really changed your perspective just as a boxer or in life in general? Life in general, you know, because before all that, well, for the car accident, I felt like I was indestructible, you know, I feel like nothing go wrong, nothing happened, like, you know, I'm on top of the world and I just felt like I was veering off the tracks, so to say, I was veering off the tracks and, you know, God, you know, he tapped me on my shoulders, like, man, you're back on the right track, man, you really forgot what you're doing it for.

And all that, sadly, you know, I always say I'm doing it for, you know, my family, my mother, my father, make sure, you know, they live a good life, they don't have to work if they don't want to and, you know, doing this for my kids and make sure, you know, they have, you know, the best life. Well, listen, Arrow, you're going to have the biggest fight of your career next month, July 29th against Crawford to kind of start to wrap things up. What don't people see about Bud and why is this fight going to be interesting? When you watch him, it's from a different eye and a different perspective.

What have you noticed that I wouldn't notice or somebody else? Oh, I mean, I feel like with him, you get what you see. I mean, he's a mean fighter. He's a gritty fighter. He got in time to fight.

He's very talented. You know, he has some skills to him, but he's very talented and he's just a mean fighter. Well, listen, we're going to see two of the best welterweights in the world. Give us the details so we can all check out the fight on July 29th. Oh man, this is a legacy fight. I feel like, I feel like this is bigger than Pac Al.

Maybe it was just on the point you got two guys in their prime, two guys who, you know, they, they're not as old as they was. So we're going to put on a great show, great performance. You know, both have mean streets. He's a mean fighter. I'm a mean fighter. I'm greedy.

He's greedy. You know, we both coming to fight. We both going to put on a great show. We're both looking to top each other because everybody's going to watch this fight. I feel like this is a fight that's going to bring, you know, boxing back to the forefront of combat sports, you know, sports in general. I feel like the who's, who's going to watch this fight and just be like, especially the older guys, they're going to watch them be like, man, this is my meal right now. This is my meal of an eighties fight. This is like an Ali fight or something.

Like, I feel like he's going to have that type of electricity and that type of energy. This fight is going to be asking to pay from the first bill. It's the JR sport re-show here with you on CBS sports radio.

Arrow spends junior getting ready to take on Terrence, Bud Crawford, July 29th, T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas. You going for one more welterweight belt, man. Congratulations and good luck to you. I'll be checking you out. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Long time coming. No doubt about it. It's the JR sport re-show here on CBS sports radio, a legacy fight. You just heard it from arrow Spence Jr. T-Mobile network can help keep you connected to all your favorite podcasts when you're out and about whether you're an early bird looking to dive into a daily news podcast or a night owl who wants to catch up on the latest reality TV drama. T-Mobile will keep you connected on their strong and reliable network. T-Mobile covers more highway miles with 5g than anyone.

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