For some time, WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford was losing hope with making an undisputed fight with WBC, WBA, IBF champion Errol Spence.
At one point, there were issues in making the fight while Crawford was promoted by Top Rank, who have an exclusive content deal with ESPN. Spence is promoted by Premier Boxing Champions, and their content deal runs through Showtime.
Entering 2022, Crawford was a promotional free agent - but he was still unable to finalize an agreement for a fight with Spence.
This time around, Crawford called Spence on the phone and they both agreed to do everything possible to make their fight a reality.
“This time around felt completely different. You know, me and Errol we actually got on the phone and we both agreed that we both were going to do our best to make sure this fight happened. And we got it done," Crawford told The MMA Hour.
"We here now, we’re about to put on, you know, one of the best welterweight showdowns and in a long time. I called him, I’m like hey listen, man, let’s get it on, and he was like he was all for it so, we both had the same mission, the same goal, to become undisputed, welterweight champion of the world and make history.”
The contest was officially announced on Wednesday, taking place on July 29th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Their fight will headline a Showtime Pay-Per-View card.
The last time Crawford saw action was back in December, when he knocked out David Avanesyan in the sixth round. Spence will be coming back from a longer layoff, with his last fight taking place in April 2022 - a stoppage of Yordenis Ugas to unify the WBC, IBF, WBA welterweight titles.