As Errol Spence prepares for his July 26 fight with Tim Tszyu in Australia, he holds a media huddle while in training camp and touches on a number of subjects including how things are going with his preparation, his new trainer, where he finds himself at this stage of his career, and more. Check out some excerpts of what Spence had to say below with the full video interview at the top.
Spence on transitioning from his longtime trainer Derrick James to working with Ronnie Shields
“The chemistry’s been good. Just been working on different stuff like hand placement, same ol’ stuff, using the jab,
combination, stepping off. So, the chemistry’s been great. I like him a lot and it shows why he’s a great trainer, legendary.”
On where he’s mentally at heading into this fight and his time away from the sport
“Just training to the best of my ability. Training, focusing on listening to my coach and just getting back down to the basics and what got me here…I didn’t really rest my body after all the little injuries or accidents that I had, I didn’t rest my body. This [layoff] was the first time I got to rest my body for about three years, so it was good. I enjoyed it a lot.”
On his opponent Tim Tszyu
“I heard something he said about he going to do me like Fundora did Keith Thurman and just talking a whole bunch of crap, and then he expects me to shake his hand. I just wasn’t in the mood for that. It’s time to fight, we’re in a tough fight. He says he’s going to be a war. Well, let it be that, then.”
On previously calling Tszyu a ‘trash’ fighter
“He’s good. He cool.”
On whether he has any regrets about the Crawford fight
“I don’t regret nothing. I’m living a blessed, great life right now. Taking something back means taking something away from your life you’re living now so I don’t regret nothing that happened or that’s going to happen. I’m in a good space mentally, physically, and I can’t complain about anything going on with my life right now.”
On general criticism from fans and pundits about fighters in this era
“You got people who ain’t never did nothing in their life talking about what somebody else doing or this person trash, this and that, but they don’t have they guts and they never lived out their dreams or anything like that, or never sacrificed anything, but you’re talking about these world championship fighters and just degrade them…To get to where they got to is probably less than 1%…and for people to talk about them how they talk about them, it’s very disgusting.”
