One of the most important improvements Errol Spence Jr. has committed to making since surviving his scary car accident is to avoid adding too much weight between bouts.

Spence estimates that he was 189 pounds when he began a nine-week training camp for his welterweight title unification fight against Shawn Porter seven months ago. Entering camp that heavy forced the 5-feet-10 Spence to lose 42 pounds prior to their weigh-in and, according to Spence, impacted his performance during a 12-round fight he won by split decision September 28 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

A regretful Spence talked about that lack of discipline with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson for the newest episode of their Showtime podcast, “All The Smoke.”

“It was a great fight,” Spence said of his victory over Porter. “I think I made it a lot harder than it was supposed to be because, you know, just the weight drop. I came down from I think 189 pounds, you know, to 147, so in a matter of probably nine weeks. So, the whole training camp I was running two times a day, you know, hitting the bag in a sauna suit, you know, just training in sauna suits and just [depleting] myself losing weight. And, you know, I just made it a lot harder than it was supposed to be, and you know, I could’ve made it a lot easier. It was a great fight. You know, we both showed a lot of heart and determination.”

The 30-year-old Spence then explained everything entailed in dropping that much weight in such a short period of time.

“You basically have to cut everything – your water intake, your food intake, you’re running twice a day,” Spence said. “Like I was running twice a day in my sauna suit – a sauna suit on my legs, a sauna suit up top, you know, working out in a sauna suit. You know, I’m not drinking that much water. I’m probably drinking I would say probably 26 ounces a day, if that. I’m eating probably twice a day.

“I’m doing that all to just drop this weight, so I can win. But it takes a lot. It’s a lot of hard work, but I’m always in shape, so you know, I don’t think that played a big difference in the fight because I’m always in shape. But I think if I would’ve been more disciplined and would’ve cut it a lot earlier, it would’ve been a way easier fight than what it was.”

Spence dropped Porter in the 11th round and won eight rounds of their back-and-forth fight on two scorecards (116-111, 116-111). A well-conditioned, physical Porter won eight rounds on the other scorecard (115-112).

Spence (26-0, 21 KOs), a strong southpaw from DeSoto, Texas, retained his IBF welterweight title and captured the WBC belt from Las Vegas’ Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs). 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.