By Dan Ambrose: IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. is open to the idea of fighting Saul “Canelo” Alvarez if he’s willing to make a compromise on the weight. Spence isn’t ready to move up to middleweight to fight the 26-year-old Canelo right now, as he’s still fighting in the 147-pound weight class. But if Canelo is willing to meet him halfway at 154, Spence says he’ll take that fight.
Canelo hasn’t been afraid to fight welterweights in the past, so perhaps he would be interested in facing Spence. We just saw Canelo fight welterweight Amir Khan last year. Canelo also fought Liam Smith at 154 last September. Canelo can definitely make the weight for the 154 lb. division when he wants to.
The 27-year-old Spence and Canelo are around the same age. Canelo is 6 months younger than Spence. Both guys are 5’9”, but Spence has 2” inch reach advantage over Canelo. In terms of the height and reach, it’s a fairly even match. I don’t think Canelo is that much heavier than Spence.
”Right now, yeah that would be the biggest fight but since he’s at 160, I don’t see that happening. But if he was able to come down to 154, I would definitely move up,” said Spence to sportsday.dallasnews.com.
Spence would be a great option for Canelo after he faces GGG. Look at it this way. If Canelo wants to look for the best fights that he can possibly win, then a fight against Spence would be a great idea. The last thing that Canelo needs is to win the middleweight titles off Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and end up being entrenched having to defend those belts against Jermall Charlo, Danny Jacobs, Ryota Murata and Tureano Johnson. Those titles are going to be like a hot potato for Canelo. It’s going to be a real nightmare for Canelo to keep the belts because of all the dangerous contenders he would need to defend them against.
This would be a fight where Spence could unravel the career of Canelo with one big shot. It would be a fight that increase Canelo’s star power if he won, but it also destroys his career if he’s blasted out by Spence. Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy have been extremely selective in the way they match him. We saw recently that when Golden Boy chose to match Canelo against a welterweight, they chose Amir Khan instead of the more dangerous Keith Thurman, Kell Brook and Errol Spence.
Was it an accident that Golden Boy selected Khan as the opponent for Canelo from the 147-pound division or was this done on purpose? I happen to think Golden Boy was being careful with Canelo to avoid having him get beaten again. What Floyd Mayweather Jr. did to Canelo wasn’t that special. What Mayweather did to Canelo can be duplicated by other welterweights in my opinion? What Mayweather did in beating Canelo in 2013 was pretty simple? He just stood back and jabbed him for 12 rounds, and didn’t bother taking risk by throwing power shots. Spence, Thurman and possibly Brook could do the same thing to beat
Spence has the kind of talent that could lead him to victory over Canelo. Spence’s punching power would likely carry up to the 154-pound division well. In Spence’s last fight, he broke Kell Brook’s left eye socket with his heavy blows. Brook eventually quit in the 11th round after taking a knee. For all intents and purposes, Brook is a junior middleweight, who rehydrates 160s. If Spence could do damage like that to Brook, then what could he do to Canelo’s face with his big shots.
It would be a good fight to see Spence and Canelo mix it up. Canelo might need to make some tough decisions about his career after his title challenge against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 16 on HBO pay-per-view. That’s a one of those fights that has a lot of question marks surrounding it for Canelo. He could do really well like some boxing experts seem to think, but Canelo might also get knocked out. It would be a really bad fight for Canelo in which he’s exposed by the bigger, stronger and some would say more talented Golovkin.
It’s normally not a big deal for a fighter to get exposed, because not much is lost from a fight. But when you’re a PPV fighter like Canelo, he could lose a great deal in getting knocked out or beaten by a lopsided 12 round decision. The boxing fans might not want to continue to purchase Canelo’s fights on PVP if he gets obliterated by Golovkin. You can argue that one of the major reasons why Golden Boy Promotions has been slow to match Canelo against Golovkin is the potential downside of him losing badly.
There are a lot of different outcomes from a fight between Canelo and Golovkin. Things could go well for Canelo with him winning. But on the flipside, it could be a bad outcome for Canelo with him ending up getting stopped by Spence. The thing is if Canelo can’t beat Golovkin, then he’s going to need to look for safer targets if he wants to continue to be a money guy on PPV.
Golden Boy can’t throw Canelo back in the ring with Golovkin if he gets knocked out or badly beaten by him. Golden Boy would crazy to do that. They would also be taking a huge risk of putting Canelo in with Jermall Charlo and Danny Jacobs at 160. For that reason, Errol Spence is someone that you would have to seriously consider as a potential opponent for Canelo. Golden Boy won’t put Canelo in with WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo, because he’s almost as dangerous as Jermall Charlo and Danny Jacobs.
Spence really wants to fight WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman. That’s Spence’s primary target. However, Spence would gladly take a fight against Canelo if he and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions were willing to make the fight happen.
”I’m not really worried about Mayweather. I want Keith Thurman,” said Spence.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. isn’t going to fight Spence, as he’s made it perfectly clear that he’s coming back to boxing just so that he can fight UFC champ Conor McGregor in a boxing match, which could be taking place on August 26. Thurman and Spence are the ones that are on a crash course to fight each other. Canelo is still out of range in a distant galaxy fighting at middleweight. It would be great for boxing if Canelo were to move down to 154 to make the fight with Spence. I just don’t think Canelo is going to do that. It depends though on what happens with the Golovkin fight. If Canelo gets beaten badly, I think he’s going to second guess the idea of him fighting at 160.
It might be too soon for Spence and Canelo to fight each other, but it’s great news that Spence is willing to take that fight right now. It suggests that he’s not afraid to fight the best and to risk taking dangerous fights. Spence isn’t type to sit on a fight and let it marinate for year and years until it’s no longer worth making. Things change rapidly in boxing. I hope Canelo makes the fight with Spence before it’s too late. He almost blew it with the Golovkin fight by waiting until he was 35 before making it. The fight should have been made 2 years ago when Golovkin was 33.