{"id":681775,"date":"2026-07-09T05:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/681775\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T05:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:56:10","slug":"derrick-james-denies-he-botched-errol-spences-training-camp-for-terence-crawford-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/681775\/","title":{"rendered":"Derrick James denies he botched Errol Spence\u2019s training camp for Terence Crawford fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trainer Derrick James joined Brian Custer on the Last Stand Podcast to discuss a number of topics, but perhaps most notable touches on recent interview from Errol Spence<\/a>, who essentially threw him under the bus for not properly preparing him for the Terence Crawford fight. Here\u2019s some of what he had to say with the full interview at the top!<\/p>\n

James on Spence calling the Crawford training camp \u2018trash\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I\u2019ll say: we weren\u2019t able to do everything that we normally do to prepare for a fight\u2026I had two other training camps going on at the same time. But they never trained at the same time but they were going on simultaneously. So I won\u2019t say it was trash but it\u2019s his perception, so nothing I can do about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was [disappointing to hear him describe it that way] but it\u2019s for him, though. I mean like, okay, he said he didn\u2019t spar. No, he did spar for two weeks and supposedly he got injured in the last week of the sparring so he couldn\u2019t spar for the next eight weeks because he had suffered an injury in that sparring session. So that\u2019s the only thing that was really different, that he didn\u2019t have the ability to spar because he was injured.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Spence criticizing the preparation for Crawford fight<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had two guys that were switch hitters [for sparring partners], both of them fought left-handed, right-handed. And so supposedly one of them injured him. I didn\u2019t see when it happened and he didn\u2019t 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\u2026So that\u2019s when I realized, they was like \u2018hey man, his ribs are hurt.\u2019\u2026I said \u2018listen, you need to go get that looked at, checked out,\u2019 and I guess he did or he didn\u2019t. I don\u2019t know because I didn\u2019t go with him but we just kept working.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis father said he\u2019s not sparring, he 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\u2019s who it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing about it was\u2026the week of in Vegas I said we can spar a little bit but spar with one of your buddies that won\u2019t shoot body shots if you have an injury. And he said \u2018No, I\u2019m not doing that, I\u2019m not sparring. No.\u2019 So he wouldn\u2019t even do it then. So, hey, it is what it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes nothing away from what Terence Crawford did. So this is all about something that\u2019s in-house.\u201d<\/p>\n

On not being specifically responsible for arranging Spence\u2019s sparring partners<\/p>\n

\u201cAny of the fighters I train will tell you I never get their sparring because what you have to understand is PBC has a roster of fighters. So they have a Rolodex thicker than mine, which I don\u2019t even have one. So they will pick particular sparring partners and I\u2019ll okay them, but I\u2019m not getting them, I\u2019m not looking for them. I\u2019m not doing any of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get the sparring partners. I never have. Any people who I train will tell you that\u2019s not what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m training them, preparing them for a fight. I okay a sparring partner, but I\u2019m not going out there looking for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trainer Derrick James joined Brian Custer on the Last Stand Podcast to discuss a number of topics, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-681775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}