For Terence Crawford, a sparring session barely differed from an actual fight. The intensity he brought inside an arena, which helped him defeat 42 opponents without any loss, mirrored the exchanges against random fighters while sparring. Crawford used those sessions to sharpen his skills, but for his opponents they turned into a nightmare. Ahead of his bout against Chris Duncan at UFC 334, Drew Dober recalled one such meeting with Crawford, forcing him to miss a workday.

“When I was a young up-and-coming fighter out of Nebraska,” Dober said on his YouTube channel. “I went into a boxing gym in North Omaha, and I sparred with a man nicknamed Bud, and I never heard of him, and I thought it would be fun and beneficial. I got in the ring, and he noticed that I was a southpaw.

“So, the first thing he said was, ‘Oh, so you’re a southpaw. I got you.’ So, he switched up to southpaw as well and just immediately stuck me with a jab. My nose started gushing blood immediately. I was bleeding like a stuck pig in the first 30 seconds of this sparring match.”

While the sparring session lasted barely two rounds, Dober learned an important lesson. Crawford would time him with lightning-fast counters, leaving him completely stunned. The beatdown left him badly bruised, forcing Dober to call in sick to work the next day.

The meeting likely took place when both Dober and Crawford were still finding a footing in their respective sports. As Nebraska natives, the pair’s paths crossed at the North Omaha Gym.

Competing as a professional MMA fighter since 2009, Dober joined the UFC on November 30, 2013. Initially he suffered setbacks but worked his way to win bouts before landing a major matchup against Islam Makhachev on March 6, 2021.

Dober lost the bout via third-round submission and suffered another setback a few months later when Brad Riddell defeated him by unanimous decision.

Dober took a few months off and returned to stop Terrance McKinney before a matchup against Rafael Alves. The fight was featured in the preliminary card of UFC 277 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on July 30, 2022.

Crawford made an appearance and watched Dober’s fight from the front row. As the fight progressed, Dober struggled to gain control due to Alves’ frequent head movements. But relief soon arrived after the first round, when Crawford shouted at Dober, saying, “Go to the body, go to the body.”

Dober implemented the strategy and went for Alves’ body, resulting in a third-round stoppage win via liver-shot.

What makes Dober’s comments particularly notable is that Crawford’s view on sparring sessions appears strikingly different.

“When I got to a certain level, I didn’t spar until I was in camp,” Crawford once said. “When I started professional, like when I started as a champ, I didn’t spar—like I mess around with the little kids, but like far as sparring-sparring, I saved that for camp.

“Because you know every punch that you take is adding up… when you take those punches upside your head, it adds up, and then later on you start feeling the effects.”

While this appears to be the first time Dober has publicly spoken about sparring with Crawford, he is not the only fighter to have recounted such an experience.

When Terence Crawford made champions look like challengers

Ahead of the showdown against Canelo Alvarez, former champion Timothy “Tim” Bradley was among a few who were confident that Crawford would outbox the Mexican star effortlessly. That belief stemmed from a personal account.

“We start to spar,” Bradley told BoxingScene. “I’m like, ‘Ah, I’m gonna take it easy on him; see what he knows.’ He hits me with the jab. Boom! I’m like, sh*t, okay! Boy got some pop on him. I step in, try to shoot a combination. Boom boom! He hits me with the counter.

“I’m like, okay, let me raise the intensity. Usually, when you have sparring partners, they bow down to the champion. They’ll give in and allow you to hit them a little bit. Not Crawford. The more intensity I brought, the harder he fought. I’m throwing combinations and trying to really put it to him, and he’s like, mm-mm.”

According to Bradley, throughout the session Crawford never lost his composure and continued to land precision shots. Concerned that Crawford was making too strong an impression on Bradley ahead of his title fight with Devon Alexander, his trainer decided to bring the session to an end.

According to four-division champion Shakur Stevenson, who shares a close bond with Crawford, the former undisputed champion gave him “the worst a** whooping” he’s ever had as a fighter.

Similar experiences have been shared by welterweight fighter Tiger Johnson and former world champion and Olympic gold medalist Amir Khan.

In Khan’s case, the reality check came when he approached Crawford to prepare him for the grudge match against Kell Brook. Roughly a year before, on April 20, 2019, the Nebraskan had stopped Khan in the sixth round of their title fight.