Derrick James denies botching Spence camp for Crawford loss
Trainer Derrick James has pushed back on Errol Spence's recent criticism of their training camp ahead of last year's lopsided loss to Terence Crawford, saying a rib injury prevented the welterweight from sparring for the final eight weeks of preparation.
Spence told reporters earlier this month that the camp was trash and implied James had not set him up properly for Crawford's southpaw puzzle. James responded on the Last Stand Podcast with Brian Custer, per Bad Left Hook, explaining that Spence got hurt during an early sparring session and his father pulled the plug on any further work. "He did spar for two weeks and supposedly he got injured in the last week of the sparring so he couldn't spar for the next eight weeks because he had suffered an injury in that sparring session," James said.
James says Spence's father shut down sparring after rib injury
According to James, Spence worked with two switch-hitters early in camp before sustaining the rib problem. James said he only learned of the injury a week later when someone mentioned Spence's ribs were hurt. "His father said he's not sparring, he going to save it for the fight," James told Custer. "His father is the one that said no sparring, and he was complaining about the way the other guys were sparring." James added that he offered Spence the chance to do light sparring during fight week in Vegas with a partner who would avoid body shots, but Spence declined.
James also addressed Spence's complaint about the quality of sparring partners, saying he does not personally recruit them. "PBC has a roster of fighters. So they have a Rolodex thicker than mine," he said. "They will pick particular sparring partners and I'll okay them, but I'm not getting them, I'm not looking for them." James stressed that the explanation took nothing away from Crawford's dominant ninth-round stoppage win in July.
Spence has not announced his next fight since moving up to junior middleweight earlier this year.
Original reporting:
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