Errol Spence Jr to fight in Nov or Dec

By Boxing News - 10/25/2015 - Comments

spenceBy Dan Ambrose: Undefeated #12 WBA, #13 WBO, #15 WBC welterweight contender Errol Spence (18-0, 15 KOs) will be fighting in the next two months against opponents still to be determined in November or December, he says. Spence, 25, stopped Chris van Heerden by an 8th round knockout last September on the Adonis Stevenson vs. Tommy Karpency card in Toronto.

It was an impressive before to say the least for the hard hitting Spence, who destroyed a very good fighter in Van Heerden in dropping him twice in the fight in the 7th round before the contest was finally stopped with Van Heerden still on his feet but taking heavy punishment in the 8th round.

Spence has been vocal about wanting a title shot against WBA “regular” welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman, but he’s not been able to get the Florida native to agree to the fight for some reason. Thurman said that Spence needed to beat a top 10 contender, but when he did that recently in stopping the #8 WBO Van Heerden, Thurman went quiet.

The World Boxing Association isn’t helping Spence out at all with their weird rankings. They had Spence ranked #8 earlier in 2015, but they then moved him to No.10, and then now recently to No.12. It doesn’t make much sense because usually a fighter is pushed up the rankings when they keep winning and looking good, but in the case of Spence, the WBA is pushing him continually downward in their rankings.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Spence is no longer in the WBA’s top 15 rankings two or three fights from now after he beats a few more quality fighters. Many of the guys that the WBA has ranked above Spence are fighters that he would likely obliterate without any problems.

They have these guys in front of Spence at this time: Amir Khan, Marcos Rene Maidana, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Teerachai Kratingdaeggym, Shane Mosley, Sadam Ali, Charlie Navarro, David Avanesyan and Dmitry Mikhaylenko. I think Spence beats all of those guys, including Thurman for the WBA 147lb belt.

The only ones that would give Spence trouble would be Porter and Maidana. Garcia can’t handle pressure, Khan has no chin, and Mosley is 44-years-old.

As far as who Spence should be looking to fight next, he obviously needs a contender or some sort for him to get pushed up the rankings. I don’t think it’s enough for him to beat a good 2nd tier guy. He needs to pick off some of the contenders for him to get ranked quickly. The problem is that with the way that Spence destroyed Van Heerden and Phil Lo Greco in his last two fights, I think it’s going to be very difficult for him to get the better fighters to agree to face him right now unless there’s a lot of money involved. I don’t think there will be though.

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Spence is seen as a future star in the welterweight division right now. I would favor him to beat everyone in the division now that Floyd Mayweather Jr. has retired. I’d like to see Spence face WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford next, but that obviously isn’t a fight that Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum would be interested in making.

Crawford rehydrated to 156lbs last night in his 10th round knockout win over little 5’6” lightweight Dierry Jean in Omaha, Nebraska. But the 5’9 ½” Spence isn’t a little lightweight like Jean, and he’s not flawed like Thomas Dulorme, another one of Crawford’s recent victims. I don’t think the 83-year-old Arum would let Spence within 300 miles of fighting Crawford, because it would be a fight that would wreck Arum’s plans for a Crawford vs. Manny Pacquiao fight in April 2016. Besides that, I doubt that Spence could melt down to 140 to take the fight with Crawford. I see Spence being way too strong for Crawford to deal with, and I think it would with a brutal knockout of Crawford by the 6th or 7th round. He’s too frail and bird-like to beat a guy like Spence.

As far as opposition in the 147lb division, Spence should look to face the likes of Konstantin Ponomarev, Sadam Ali or Andre Berto for his next fight. I doubt that Berto would agree to a fight against Spence, because he just got a big payday fight against Mayweather and doesn’t need to fight a young powerhouse like Spence right now.



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