Terence Crawford: Even My Kids Were Like, ‘Dad, Is You Gonna Fight That Spencer Guy?’

It got to the point that even Terence Crawford’s children consistently asked him when he would fight Errol Spence Jr.

Crawford joked during a virtual press conference Wednesday that’s when he knew it was time to finally fight the undefeated, unified welterweight champion. The 35-year-old Crawford wondered for a few years whether he’d ever be able to definitively reply, “Yes,” to that question, thus he is more than thankful that their welterweight title unification fight has at long last been scheduled for July 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“For years,” Crawford said, “even my kids [were] like, ‘Dad, is you gonna fight that Spencer guy?’ [I said], ‘Spence.’ [They said], ‘Well, yeah, Errol Spence – is you gonna fight him?’ Like, ‘Yeah.’ Even my son [said], ‘Dad, when you fight him I’m coming to the fight. I don’t care. I’m coming.’ ”

Crawford couldn’t go anywhere, it seemed, without being asked about the career-defining fight that will crown boxing’s first undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt era. Well-documented negotiations were beyond difficult – both last year and this time around – but Crawford hopes hardcore and casual boxing fans alike will support their event enough to have made all of the frustration worthwhile.

“I get it from my family, I get it from my kids, I get it from fans,” said Crawford, the father of six children. “Everybody want this fight. This is the fight that the whole world that follows boxing want. And when you hear it from your kids, like they always watchin’ YouTube and they see they dad name come up, they always askin’, you like, ‘Man, I gotta fight this dude. I gotta figure out a way to fight this dude,’ because when you got your kids askin’ you when you gonna fight this dude, then, you know you gotta fight him.”

Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs), a three-division champion from Omaha, Nebraska, and Spence (28-0, 22 KOs), of DeSoto, Texas, will fight for Crawford’s WBO belt and Spence’s IBF, WBA and WBC championships. Handicappers have installed Crawford as a slight favorite versus the taller, strong southpaw who is commonly considered the toughest opponent Crawford has agreed to fight during a pro career he launched early in 2008.

Their 12-round, 147-pound title unification fight will headline a four-fight Showtime Pay-Per-View event ($84.99; 8 p.m. EDT; 5 p.m. PDT).

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