Terence Crawford disagrees with those that have suggested Errol Spence Jr. should retire.

Crawford dropped Spence three times and dominated his rival on his way to a career-defining, ninth-round, technical-knockout victory July 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Factions of fans and media have since expressed concern for Spence’s long-term health because Crawford battered him for much of their welterweight title unification bout, but Crawford believes Spence can recover and become a formidable fighter again.

Spence, 33, stated during the immediate aftermath of his first professional loss that he’ll exercise his contractual right to an immediate rematch with Crawford. Their second fight likely will be contested at the junior middleweight limit of 154 pounds because both Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) and Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) have acknowledged the significant difficulty they’ve had getting down to the welterweight maximum of 147.

Regardless, Crawford wants Spence to continue his career.

“Well, I don’t think he should retire,” Crawford told “The Breakfast Club” co-hosts DJ Envy and Charlamagne The God during a recent appearance on New York’s Power 105.1 FM. “I think he should take a little time off, you know, get his mind right and, you know, get back in the gym and get back focused. Because, you know, I never took a loss in the professional rankings. But I know how that could affect you mentally, you know, being at this high level and losing the way [Spence] lost.

“You know, you start questioning yourself, you start asking yourself certain questions. Do I still got it? Am I gettin’ old? Am I slipping? You start asking yourself all different type of questions that you gotta answer. So, I just would tell him, you know, ‘You a great fighter. Take a little time off and come back and, you know, do it again. But don’t rush it.’ ”

A Crawford-Spence rematch is expected to take place either in December or sometime in the beginning of 2024. Crawford expects Spence to be very motivated to make their rematch much more competitive than their first fight, but the three-division champion has expressed nothing but respect toward Spence since his surprisingly easy victory over the southpaw from DeSoto, Texas.

“I sent him a text message,” Crawford said. “I sent him a text message to check up on him.”

Spence replied to Crawford’s text, but the Omaha, Nebraska native didn’t divulge details of their exchange.

“Like I told everybody, I don’t hate Errol Spence,” Crawford said. “Like I’m a fan of Errol Spence. Like, you know, it was just business at the end of the day.”

Crawford added that he would’ve granted Spence an immediate rematch even if their contractual clauses left that decision up to the winner, rather than the loser of their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event.

“Of course,” Crawford said. “You know, cuz I felt like he was a big factor in this fight gettin’ made, like I said. Without him, you know, well, both of us coming together, you know, if we was to leave everything to our handlers and promoters and advisers, managers, this fight would’ve never happened.

“I felt like it was me and Errol Spence like, ‘All right, you want this? All right, cool. You want that? All right, cool. I’m cool with this. You cool with that.’ You know, and us two puttin’ our pride to the side and just coming together and making this event happen.”

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