Like his upcoming opponent, the first title win for Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford didn’t just come on the road but in his opponent’s home country.

The sixteen title fight wins that followed all saw Crawford in the promotional driver’s seat but has seemingly conceded the A-side role in the event buildup to Errol Spence. It matters little to the three-division champ and his team, and is—at minimum—a very distant second to what matters most in their upcoming undisputed championship.  

“They looking at us like we’re the B-side,” Brian ‘Bomac’ McIntyre, Crawford’s longtime head trainer, said during Tuesday’s official press conference at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. “That’s alright. That’s what we know. Glad they got this fight made. Glad both fighters stayed the course and stayed true to the game, to show who the best fighter in the world is. That just speaks true values of each of fighter’s character.”

The two will meet July 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Spence (28-0, 22KOs) will put his WBA, WBC and IBF belts at stake while Crawford (39-0, 30KOs) risks his WBO strap as both bid to become the first undisputed male welterweight champion in the four-belt era.

The fight comes more than nine years after Crawford’s first title win. The switch-hitter from Omaha, Nebraska was 26 years old and just 22 fights into his career when he traveled to Glasgow to face Scotland’s favorite son and reigning WBO lightweight titlist Ricky Burns. Crawford won their March 2014 bout and the title via twelve-round, unanimous decision and returned to the U.S. where the duration of his career has taken place.

Crawford would go on to win titles at junior welterweight and welterweight as well. Each reign has included two title defenses in his Omaha hometown—six in total, plus an August 2017 knockout win over Julius Indongo to become undisputed junior welterweight champion roughly an hour from home in Lincoln, Nebraska. Crawford’s last home game came in his most recent outing, a sixth-round knockout of David Avanesyan at CHI Health Center in Omaha.

The fight versus Spence will mark his fourth as a pay-per-view headliner, the one area where he has not excelled in the sport. Spence fights in his fifth consecutive PPV main event and is also a longtime favorite son of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), who presents the event. Crawford makes his PBC debut with this fight and is perfectly fine with his opponent continuing to enjoy preferential treatment as his focus is on becoming a three-division lineal champion and undisputed at two separate weights—the latter which no other male boxer has ever accomplished.

“We’re gonna show who the best fighter in the world on July 29th. It will be us,” vowed McIntyre. “I know Spence is coming. I know Derrick [James, Spence’s boxing lifetime trainer] is gonna train the shit out of him. I know his team is gonna do a damn good job over.

“I promise you from the bottom of my heart we gonna walk away victoriously.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox