(Photo credit: Premier Boxing champions) By Dan Ambrose: After making a controversial pick of choosing WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as their ‘Fighter of the Year’ 2015, ESPN finally got things right by selecting unbeaten welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr. (19-0, 16 KOs) as their ‘Prospect of the Year’ for 2015.
It’s kind of hard to call Spence, 25, a prospect at this point because he’s been a top 15 contender since 2014. In theory, prospects should be young fighters that aren’t ranked in the top 15. You can’t say that about Spence. He’s definitely a contender and has been for some time.
Unfortunately for Spence, he’s being moved very, very slowly by the sanctioning bodies for some reason despite him obliterating everyone he’s facing. For example, instead of Spence being ranked in the top 10 with many of the sanctioning bodies, you have arguably weaker opponents ranked above him like Kevin Bizier, Omar Figueroa, Shane Mosley, Robert Guerrero, Andre Berto, Diego Chaves, Fredrick Lawson, Jessie Vargas, Chris Algieri, Jeff Horn, and Bradley Skeete. It doesn’t make any sense at all for any of those fighters to be ranked above Spence in my opinion because I think he would knock them all out. Guerrero and Mosley are known for their good chins, but I see Spence stopping both of them.
Spence is coming off of an impressive 5th round knockout win over Alejandro Barrera last November in an IBF eliminator bout. Spence will soon be fighting in a final IBF eliminator bout as soon as his adviser Al Haymon can find someone for him to fight. It would be interesting to see Spence face someone like Algieri or Mosley if he could get a fight against either of them, but I don’t see that happening. He’s just too dangerous, and I see those guys passing on the fight.
“When I was getting ready for Guerrero, the first guy I started looking to spar with was a southpaw and Errol was giving me real good work,” Floyd Mayweather said via ESPN.com. “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.”
Mayweather recently attempted to help Spence get a title shot against WBA “regular” welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman by offering one of his welterweight titles for the two to fight over, but Thurman declined the offer. He wanted to fight Mayweather, not Spence, who he felt hadn’t done enough to deserve a fight against him. Interestingly enough, Thurman hadn’t done much in his career at the time he said this other than beating a lot of weaker and older fighters. Thurman still hasn’t fought a real quality fighter.
“It’s an honor for him to stand behind me and say I’m the future of boxing, and I’m not even signed with [Mayweather Promotions],” Spence said to ESPN.com. “He obviously believes in me. I have to prove him right by winning titles and beating these top fighters.”
It would be great if Spence could get the top fighters to face him, but getting the top dogs to agree to fight a talented guy like him is going to be very difficult unless his adviser Al Haymon comes up with some big money to lure someone.
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