By Allan Fox: Unbeaten blue-chip contender Errol Spence Jr. (20-0, 17 KOs) has a tough test on his hands this month on August 21 against Leonard Bundu (33-1-1, 12 KOs) at the Amphitheater in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. While the fight is merely an IBF welterweight title eliminator, it has more on the line than just the right to become IBF 147lb champion Kell Brook’s mandatory challenger. The Spence vs. Bundu fight will be shown on Premier Boxing Champion on NBC. Spence will be getting a great deal of visibility in this fight, so its important that he impresses. It’ll be bad news for his career is he’s seen struggling against Bundu,
It’s also a fight that will show whether the 2012 U.S Olympian Spence has the talent to be the next star in the division. He cannot be seen to struggle against Bundu, because he’s got so many expectations. With many boxing fans seeing the 26-year-old Spence as the next star at 147 and the fighter that will replace Floyd Mayweather Jr, Spence needs to easily beat Bundu, preferably by a knockout.
If Spence struggles or merely beats the 41-year-old Bundu by a 12 round decision, then his stock will plummet and fans will jump off the Spence bandwagon in lightning fashion. It’s not fair to Spence to have all those expectations riding on his shoulders because Bundu is a former Olympian as well, and he’s no easy mark. Bundu, 5’6”, has only been beaten once in his career and that was against Keith “One Time” Thurman in their fight in 2014, and he gave him a lot of problems.
Spence is going to have to go after Bundu and look to decimate him the same way he did his last opponent Chris Algieri. Bundu will try and put pressure on Spence the way that he did Keith “One Time” Thurman in their fight in 2014. Bundu had Thurman on the run after hitting him with some hard shots in the first three rounds. Despite winning the fight by a one-sided manner, Thurman came out looking bad because he was seen as running from the older, smaller, and weaker Bundu.
The crowd was booing Thurman during and after the fight. Spence can’t let himself be seen running from Bundu. He’s got to be able to meet him head on and take him out. Spence has a huge advantage that Thurman didn’t have with his inside fighting skills. Spence is one of the best inside fighters in the welterweight division. Shawn Porter is considered a very good inside fighter as well, but he often smothers his own work by not getting a lot of power and leverage on his shots on the inside.
Spence is able to throw with major power in close, and it’s hard for his opponents to take his body shots. It will be interesting to see how well Bundu holds up to Spence’s inside work on August 21. Bundu will almost surely look to fight in close, because that’s what his entire game is built on. But if he can’t handle the body shots that Spence is hitting him with, then this fight could end very quickly unless Bundu decides to get on his bike and use movement. Once Bundu does that, the fight will be lost for him, because he’s too shot at 5’6” to fight the taller 5’9 ½” Spence from the outside.