By Scott Gilfoid: Errol Spence Jr. (20-0, 17 KOs) really showed off his stuff last night in beating a fighter that no one had ever beaten in that fashion before in his 5th round stoppage win over Chris Algieri (21-3, 8 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Spence feels that his win over Algieri showed that he’s right up there at the same level as Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman. Spence believes he’s in the top five of the best welterweights in the division right now after the punching display he put on last Saturday night. I think Spence is underselling himself. I think he’s better than all those guys by far.
In fact, I think Spence knocks them all out, including Porter, who I feel is the best of the bunch of fighters that Spence listed. Spence’s job will be much easier though after June 25. That’s when Porter faces Thurman for his WBA welterweight title. Pacquiao already retired and probably won’t be coming back. Khan is facing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on May 7, and he’ll likely be badly knocked out. The only guys left standing for Spence to fight will be Kell Brook, the winner of Thurman-Porter, and Danny Garcia.
“Manny Pacquiao is a hard puncher, he’s quick, but he lacks fundamentals,” said Spence. “That’s what I’m big on, fundamentals. I can cut off the ring. That’s something Manny Pacquiao can’t do. He can’t cut off the ring. You saw with Floyd Mayweather and as you see with Chris Algieri. When Chris Algieri got hurt, he was able to move around and recover [against Pacquiao]. I didn’t allow Chris Algieri to do that,” said Spence.
Pacquiao would be easy work for Spence if the two of them fought each other right now. As we saw last Saturday night in Pacquiao’s win over Tim Bradley, Pacquiao is now back to being a one-armed fighter. He can’t use his right hand for anything other than short fast punches. He’s not able to wind up with his right hand like he was able to do before he suffered a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder. As such, Pacquiao would be a one-armed fighter against the southpaw Spence, and it would be a real wipe-out for Spence. He would go to Pacquiao’s body, which has always been his weak spot, and take him out with a body shot.
I'm ready for anyone in the welterweight division. Proved that last night. This only the beginning‼️ #TeamTruth #ThankYou #MANDOWN #MyTime
— Errol Spence (@ErrolSpenceJr) April 17, 2016
It’s a good thing that Pacquiao is retiring now because if he continued to fight, there would be tremendous pressure on him to fight Spence. If he did do that, then Spence would likely obliterate him like he did with Algieri last night. I don’t think Pacquiao vs. Spence would ever happen though because Spence is with manager Al Haymon and Pacquiao is with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.
“I think I’m in the top five with Kell Brook, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, and the rest of those guys. I’m right there. I’m the mandatory for Kell Brook, so hopefully we can get that in real soon. Hopefully later on in the year it’ll be Kell Brook. I think it’s like a tournament right now. You’ve got Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman. After that, hopefully I’ll fight Kell Brook and then hopefully I’ll fight Danny Garcia, the winner of Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter. Everyone will fight for that top spot. I proved that I’m there with Keith Thurman, Amir Khan and Shawn Porter and Manny Pacquiao. I put on a performance that Manny Pacquiao didn’t do and Amir Khan didn’t do. They didn’t stop Chris Algieri,” said Spence.
Getting Thurman in the ring to fight Spence might be difficult because Thurman has been lukewarm to the idea of fighting him. In the past, Thurman has said that Spence didn’t have the experience for him to fight him. Thurman said this despite the fact that his own experience was rather limited with his best wins coming against Luis Collazo, Robert Guerrero, Diego Chaves and Jesus Soto Karass. Those are basically fringe level/2nd tier guys, and there’s no one on Porter’s resume that is really good or close to being really good as of yet.
Spence needs to forget about facing Brook in 2016, because the silence that we’re getting from Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn right now suggests that they’re not even going to comment on Spence. That tells me that they’re interested in this fight.