Errol Spence Jr. apparently couldn’t let go of the idea of fighting Terence Crawford—even when he was in the throes of a painful recovery process.

After initially failing to consummate a deal, Spence, unified WBA, WBC, IBF welterweight champion from Desoto, Texas, will finally meet Crawford, the WBO titlist from Omaha, Nebraska, for the undisputed 147-pound championship July 29 at T-Mobile Arena on Showtime Pay-Per-View.

In a recent interview, Spence revealed just how keen he was on fighting Crawford. Apparently, he was asking for it while he was cooped up in the hospital, in 2019, after suffering a gruesome car accident that left him with severe injuries. (Spence later pled guilty to a DWI.) Spence himself does not remember the exchange, but he says that his close ones told him that he repeatedly indicated to his advisor, Al Haymon, that he wanted the Crawford fight.

“Even when I was in the hospital, I don’t remember nothin’ for the first six weeks when I was in the hospital,” Spence said on the podcast Million Dollaz Worth of Game. “I don’t remember. Al Haymon came to the hospital. I don’t remember none of that. I didn’t know he came to the hospital, probably until like four months after being in the hospital.

“Everybody told me that I was telling him (Haymon) that after I get out of the hospital that I want to fight Terence Crawford.”

“And they hyped me up, [telling me], ‘Don’t worry about it, we gon’ get that boy.’

“I was thinking about fighting. I was like, ‘Hey, when I come back, I want to fight Terence Crawford in my first fight back.’ I’m saying stuff like that, [with] missing teeth, everything, one eye.”

Spence, 33, suffered another car accident last year, when an underage driver ran a red light and rammed into his SUV. Spence reportedly injured his leg but was otherwise free of any serious injuries.  

Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.