Spence vs. Bundu on 8/21 at Amphitheater in Coney Island, NY

By Boxing News - 06/27/2016 - Comments

Image: Spence vs. Bundu on 8/21 at Amphitheater in Coney Island, NY

By Dan Ambrose: It looks like unbeaten #2 IBF welterweight contender Errol Spence (20-0, 17 KOs) will be facing #7 IBF Leonard Bundu (33-1-2, 12 KOs) on August 21 at the new Barclays Center owned Amphitheater in Coney Island, New York, according to Dan Rafael. As already reported, the Spence-Bundu fight will be televised on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC.

The venue seats 5,000, which is a good number for a fight of this kind. It was an accomplishment if the two fighters are able to sellout the venue. The Spence vs. Bundu fight will be an IBF welterweight eliminator. The winner of the fight will be the mandatory challenger to IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook.

It’ll be surprising if either of them gets a crack at Brook though, because he’s interested in fighting unifications one after another before moving up to the 154lb division to campaign as a junior middleweight.

“The Errol SpenceJr-Bundu fight 8/21 likely will be on 1st card to take place at Barclays Center-owned Amphitheater in Coney Island. #boxing,” said Rafael on his Twitter.

That’s a good venue if the fight does wind up there because it would be an outdoor event, and it’s a really nice surroundings for the fans. It would give them things to do if they decided to come early.

2012 U.S Olympian Spence, 26, is seen as the future of the welterweight division. After toiling away in lower level fights since he turned pro in 2012, Spence is finally stepping up to fight the best fighters. He plans at staying at this level from now on. Now it’s going to be interesting to see how well Spence does against the top fighters.

Bundu is a good test for the 5’9 ½” Spence, because he fought Keith Thurman two years ago in 2014, and gave him a lot of problems with his speed, inside fighting ability and his aggression. Thurman was not comfortable at all with the pressure that Bundu put on him, and it forced him to flee and circle the ring for 12 rounds. We didn’t see the aggressive Thurman that we saw last Saturday night in his fight against Shawn Porter.

Thurman wasn’t willing to stand in the pocket and engage Bundu. That’s why it’s going to be interesting to see how well Spence does against Bundu. If he can run him over like a speed bump like he did against his last opponent Chris Algieri last April, then it’s going to show the boxing world the difference between Spence’s talent and Thurman’s. Spence, 26, is a year younger than the 27-year-old Thurman, but Spence had a more successful amateur career.

Bundu has won his last two fights against Pablo Munguia and Jussi Koivula. He looked good in both of those fights, but neither of those guys are world class fighters. Bundu will be making a big step up in class when he faces Spence, and this fight is coming at the wrong time in his career. It would have been a little better for Bundu if the fight came eight years earlier when he was younger. Bundu is a former 2000 Olympian for Italy. He defeated Daniel Geale 4-2, but then lost to Daniyar Munaitbasov of Kazakhstan by a 13-4 score to be eliminated.