By Jaime Ortega: I’ve followed Errol Spence Jr. since he fought in 2012 in the Olympics. He recently emerged as the next messiah to transcend Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao’s reign. The legend speaks that Errol sparred Floyd, and gave him a black eye. From that day on, he became Floyd’s most difficult sparring partner. This rumor has neither been falsified nor denied by those who witnessed the account.
Shawn Porter recently confirmed in a video interview that a few years back Errol sparred Adrien “The Problem” Broner, and gave him a boxing lesson. Broner apparently frustrated by the outcome, left the boxing ring crying. Errol himself reiterated the rumor to be true, but did not go into details what really happened that day.
Errol’s emergence in the boxing scene became notorious, not for his professional achievement, but because Floyd supposed to fight WBA contender Keith Thurman decided to play mind-games with the mandatory challenger and fancied a fight between the two upcoming talents to create a new rivalry. A perfectly executed mind game focused on the future of boxing, instead of questioning Floyd’s immediate dubious opponent at the time – it actually fine-tuned the hype and helped promote Errol’s invisible career.
Floyd retired the easy way out and eyed Karim Mayfield and Andre Berto, only to cherry pick the latter. When Floyd announced that Errol was the man to succeed him, he was also trying to sign the Texan to join TMT. Errol never joined TMT, and the whole process of marketing Errol on Floyd’s behalf abruptly ended, became dull and died off quickly. Floyd never spoke about Errol again and is currently in the process of negotiations to sign Mickey Garcia to TMT.
There is no doubt that Errol is talented and might well be the next boxing messiah. Only father time will tell. His crafty skills and amateur record are solid evidence of his progression as a champion and factorable prodigy. The eye test alone shows a very technically gifted counter-boxer. However, I’ve heard the same song before, talents like Luis Collazo at one point also began as prodigies
only to end nowhere near their full potential.
Now let’s get real, despite the recent hype, Errol’s record is absolutely non-impressive and neither are any of the boxers he has thus far faced. Despite his talent, he looks incredibly good against average boxers. Those who watch Errol box often will notice he has several flaws on his game. He is still under construction and is by no means a finished product.
After the Chris Algeri fight, the Errol hype skyrocketed again which left me salty. Errol knocked and destroyed an average boxer on his way down. Algeri was first dethroned by Pacquiao, and blurred out by Amir Khan. Prior to fighting Errol, Algeri had suffered two devastating losses that tainted his professional boxing career and credibility as a top pugilist in the welter division; by the time he fought a young hungry lion in Errol, he was already on the psychological brink of extinction. Algeri should stick to kickboxing, as boxing is not for him — he has tons of technical flaws and its crystal clear he belongs in 140, he is too weak for 147. To his credit, every boxing fan should at least recognize Algeri didn’t duck anyone.
Very few boxers have the pedigree to bounce back after two significant loses against top elite challengers. When a top prospect loses against two top fighters his ego starts to shatter. If you break a glass cup, two times, and try to glue it back, the cup isn’t the same cup on its original form. Like I said, few athletes can bounce back once loses shatter their careers.
The common view among the bandwagon boxing fan is that every boxer in the welterweight division is ducking Errol. I agree that IBF contender Konstantin Pomonarev team decision to pull out the fight, might be part of such scheme to avoid a loss; Konstantin suddenly came with a late hand injury excuse and the fight never materialized, but to his credit it could be an honest excuse (I don’t know). Keith Thurman had an accident that resulted in a legit neck injury and many thought he was ducking Shawn Porter. They were wrong.
Yet Errol himself has taken an easier route by facing old Leonard Bundu, dethroned by Keith not long ago via UD. If Errol was serious about facing the best, have no doubts his team would have chosen Diego “La Joya” Chaves as his next fight instead of Bundu. The Argentinian is opponent free and looking for a fight. Chaves is no chump and dangerous to any welterweight. There is a solid reason why Kell Brook in November pulled-out from that difficult fight. Tim Bradley warned Brook, it would be a very difficult fight for him. The fight between Chaves and Brook rescheduled not.
Undefeated, Sammy ‘The Sargent” Vazquez is also another fighter that could pose a serious threat to the welterweight division and is also without opponent. Jessie Vargas was also an option till last month. And Saddam Ali, despite losing to Jessie Vargas in a fight that quite frankly he threw away, could still face Errol. What about Frankie Gomez? So why Bundu? Please let’s not talk about ducking.
Some boxing fans suffer the impression that boxing is some sort of brave-heart sport where the best never duck each-other.
The point is simple. All boxer’s duck each other at one point in their careers, Errol gets ducked by some, and he ducks others; for those that believe the opposite, I recommend watching a different sport. From all the present welterweights only Keith Thurman, Luis Collazo, Chris Algeri and Timothy Bradley seem to fight the next in line – then again, they might have at one point ducked an opponent outside of the eye radar—I would also add Amir Khan on that list, but I am not certain he ducks Brook, or the other way around which shouldn’t surprise anyone. I lost respect for Brook after he cut lose Chaves.
As for what it stands now. Errol does not deserve a fight with any of the belt contenders. His record is simply poor. His only impressive win was against ‘Algeri on decline’. He could have chosen a harder opponent than Bundu — Thurman ended his winning streak. Errol’s surge came mostly because Floyd sold him to the public to fight Keith and Shawn to avoid media criticism for his cherry-pick fight with Berto. Errol has plenty of opponents in his radar that would legitimately pose a legit challenge to his ascent that his team seems to have avoided — I speak the truth.
Errol could very well be the next boxing prodigy, he has the talent. If he becomes the next legend, it shouldn’t surprise anyone. But it is way too early to nitpick whether or not he will have a dominant role in the talent stacked future of the welterweight division. If Terrence Crawford or Eduard Troyanovski enter the 147 race, it would only add to the confusion. They are a lot of undefeated boxers at 147, many which should also receive the attention Errol gets, but don’t get media attention — just saying! Let’s size up Errol with other serious threats and see how good he really is! Till then, he remains another hype-job. They are no excuses to why Errol’s team selected Bundu out the infested talent pool in his division, but I am sure you could make one up!