Errol Spence survived two horror car crashes to make it to Terence Crawford super fight

Of the promising generation of American welterweights seen as capable of succeeding Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao at the top of their glamorous division, the one who stood out above all else was none other than Errol Spence.

Shawn Porter had established himself as a potentially devastating puncher the night in 2014 he stopped Paulie Malignaggi, and the classy Keith Thurman outboxed established opponents with ease, but Spence – the only one who would have been yet to make his professional debut if Mayweather vs Pacquiao had happened when widely hoped, in 2009 – was widely considered the most capable of the three.

That it took Spence until November 2012, and a third-round knockout of the little-known Jonathan Garcia, to make his professional debut owed to his participation at London 2012, where he was the last American male standing. Spence left London without a medal after defeat in the quarter-finals by Russia’s Andrey Zamkovoy, but not before he had become the centre of attention when his 13-11 defeat by Krishan Vikas of India was overturned because Vikas was later rightly recognised as having committed numerous fouls.

His reputation grew further when, months before his first professional fight, he was said to have been involved in a both competitive and heated spar with Mayweather when Mayweather, sufficiently impressed by his talents to detect the value in sharing the ring with him, was preparing to return after spending two months in jail.

“When I was getting ready for Robert Guerrero, who is a southpaw, the first guy I started looking to spar with was a southpaw and Errol was giving me real good work,” Mayweather later said. “He pushed me and made me get in tip top condition, and once I was in tip top condition, I was ready and the best I could be. He’s a hell of a fighter.”

Porter’s father and trainer Kenny was among those to have witnessed the two fighters spar. Kenny Porter also did so having worked with Spence while he remained an amateur. Spence, similarly, was introduced to boxing by his father Errol Sr at the age of 15, but after being born in Long Island and raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, it was perhaps inevitable his professional trainer would be the respected Derrick James whom Anthony Joshua is now aligned with.

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Interest in the promising Spence’s career, by when Thurman was the reigning WBA world champion and Porter had been dethroned as IBF world champion by Kell Brook, contributed to his fight with Leonard Bundu, in August 2016, being watched by an audience in the region of six million in the USA. Thurman vs Porter, won by Thurman that June, had, by way of comparison, attracted figures a third of that size.

After stopping Bundu in the sixth, Spence progressed to a fight with Brook in Brook’s home city and Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane. Demonstrating admirable composure, confidence and maturity, Spence grew in momentum against a fighter previously undefeated at 147lbs and stopped the champion in the 11th round to, at the age of 27 in June 2017, not only win his first world title but come of age.

His first defence came against Lamont Peterson, who had once attempted to mentor the younger Spence, and after his 11th successive stoppage victory, against Carlos Ocampo, Spence entered his highest-profile fight against Mikey Garcia, then widely recognised as one of the finest fighters in the world. When stepping up from lightweight, Garcia – then undefeated – was considered so accomplished a fighter that pre-fight predictions were split, and yet what followed was a one-sided fight in which Spence won every round.

It was after his following fight, the considerably more testing split-decision over Porter, when everything in Spence’s world was thrown into doubt. Not unlike when Spence defeated Peterson, Porter, then the WBC world champion, had significant insight into him via his father. What unfolded was an even more testing fight than that against Brook, and further recognition of Spence’s admirable progress. 

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“I get more and more impressed with Errol Spence every time he fights,” said none other than Sugar Ray Leonard, perhaps the finest of all welterweights. “In terms of being technical, his hand speed, his power, the way he moves, the way he thinks, the way he breaks an opponent down – it’s almost choreographed. 

“Spence is also huge for the weight, like Tommy Hearns was, and to be a southpaw with all that talent – it’s very difficult to overcome that. He can box and he can fight. He’s got it all.”

Spence will regardless know that everything Leonard was referring to was then so very nearly taken away. Three weeks after victory over Porter, in the early hours of October 10, 2019 and when not wearing a seatbelt, he was involved in a horrific, high-speed crash in which his $300,000 Ferrari flipped multiple times and he was violently thrown from it. His car was destroyed and Spence was found on concrete, and yet he miraculously somehow not only survived, he was diagnosed with only a fractured jaw, a concussion, facial lacerations, and some damaged teeth. 

After his release from hospital, following almost a week in intensive care, he continued to suffer not only from constant pain in his neck and hip in what he described as muscle 'trauma', but for a period while driving post-traumatic stress. Even James questioned whether his leading fighter could ever truly recover, and yet the following December he returned to beat Danny Garcia, securing a date with the great Pacquiao, who had since inflicted Thurman’s only defeat, for August 2021. 

Instead of entering his biggest fight, Spence was forced to withdraw on account of a retinal tear potentially suffered in his car crash – he had been charged with a DUI but avoided time in prison when sentenced to probation – once again putting his fine career in doubt. Again Spence recovered and again he returned, in April 2022 against Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas – who replaced him as Pacquiao’s opponent and proceeded to retire the Filipino – and again his career was put at risk.

In December Spence was involved in another car crash that meant his SUV being written off after it was hit head-on by an underaged and unlicensed driver who had run a red light. He escaped relatively unscathed – he complained only of a leg injury – and against Terence Crawford will be involved in 2023’s biggest, and his defining, fight. 

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