NEW YORK – Errol Spence Jr. is encouraged to be part of a year in which many fights fans have wanted to see have already happened or been scheduled.

The unbeaten IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion hopes that trend continues because such high-profile fights as his showdown with Terence Crawford have had a positive impact on the state of the sport in 2023. Their full title unification fight July 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will take place in roughly the same four-month span during which we’ve seen David Benavidez-Caleb Plant, Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney-Vasiliy Lomachenko.

A 122-pound title bout between WBC/WBO champ Stephen Fulton and undefeated three-division champ Naoya Inoue is also scheduled for July 25 in Tokyo, just four days before Crawford and Spence will square off to crown the first undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt era.

“I feel like it’s been a great year for boxing,” Spence told a group of reporters recently following a press conference at Palladium Times Square. “Like we gettin’ all the great fights, the boxers gettin’ all the great opportunities. And, you know, I feel like the best guys are finally fighting each other. So, I think it’s great for boxing, it’s great for the people who support boxing. And we just gonna keep doing it and hopefully, you know, we keep on for next year and it goes to [the] next year and it keep carrying on and, you know, we just keep having great matches.”

Spence sensed for too long that many undefeated fighters were unwilling to risk their unblemished records and settled for less meaningful fights.

Spence traveled to Kell Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England for his first title shot six years ago. The DeSoto, Texas native knocked out Brook in the 11th round to win the IBF 147-pound championship in May 2017 at Bramall Lane, a soccer stadium.

Five of Spence’s six subsequent fights have come against current or former world champions (Lamont Peterson, Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia and Yordenis Ugas).

Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, and Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) have been criticized for failing to finalize their showdown sooner, but the welterweight rivals could fight twice within this year. There are immediate rematch clauses in their contracts that the loser must exercise within 30 days of July 29 to secure a second fight that could take place prior to the end of 2023.

Crawford, 35, and Spence, 33, agreed once they began dealing directly with one another a few months ago that both boxers needed to put this risky fight together to strengthen their legacies and for the betterment of boxing.

“Before Floyd Mayweather, guys lost,” Spence said. “Even without Floyd Mayweather, guys lost. So, everybody wanna keep they zero. You know, they wanna be, you know, like Floyd. But nobody can be perfect, you know what I’m saying, like how Floyd was. He had a blessed career. You know, that’s probably once in a lifetime, you know, in my lifetime, you know, to fight top competition and you remain undefeated.

“It’s really all about the best fightin’ the best, puttin’ on great shows and puttin’ on great performances. You know, but we got to the point where people don’t wanna lose. But, you know, if you wanna be the best, you know, you gotta take risks.”

Crawford is listed by most sportsbooks as a slight favorite to beat Spence in their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event next month.

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