Spence says his goal is to KO Bundu

By Boxing News - 08/16/2016 - Comments

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By Allan Fox: Errol Spence Jr. (20-0, 17 KOs) is coming into his fight this Sunday against Leonard Bundu (33-1-2, 12 KOs) with the No.1 goal of knocking him out and outdoing the performance of Keith “One Time” Thurman in his win over the Italian based fighter. The Spence vs. Bundu fight will be shown live on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC during prime-time at the Ford Amphitheater in Coney Island, New York.

Spence, 26, overall goal is to make sure he wins the fight against the 41-year-old Bundu, but his initial goal will be to try and get him out of there by knocking him out. Spence won’t have a hard time looking for Bundu, because the #6 IBF ranked fighter will be there right in front of him.

Bundu, 5’6 ½”, doesn’t have much height or reach, so he tends to pressure his opponents, so he’s forced to come right at them and attack on the inside. This happens to be exactly how Spence likes to fight.

“I would want the knockout, but with me, I just look for, you know, a spectacular performance,” said Spence. “It’s like walk them down or go for the knockout. You know, hopefully I get the knockout. If it comes, I’m definitely going to take it. But if I have to box, then I’ll box too, but hopefully I have another performance like I did with Chris Algieri,” said Spence.

Algieri tried his best but was knocked out by Spence in five rounds last April at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Algieri had the height at 5’10”, but he didn’t have the chin or the ability to absorb Spence’s vicious body attack. That’s what did in Algieri, because he folded up in round five and stopped.

Bundu may end up getting knocked out quicker by Spence unless he uses his feet this Sunday to try and keep away from him the best that he can. It’s not going to be a winnable fight for Bundu if he goes into the survival mode against Spence, because he’s not going to be able to win the fight by throwing single shots and then scampering away to keep from getting hit in return. Bundu has to be able to stand in the pocket and trade with Spence ao that the judges see him getting the better of the American 2012 Olympics.

“I just look for another spectacular fight, August 21st, another spectacular one-sided performance,” said Spence. “I’m a rising star and I want to look spectacular against him and get a knockout. The main goal is to win. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m not going to look for the knockout. If I can get the knockout, if it doesn’t just come naturally, then I’ll take the win, but that’s the main goal overall is to win.”

Bundu is a good fighter, but he’s not much of a puncher. That could prove to be his undoing in this fight, because to keep Spence off of him, he’s going to need to be able to find some power. Spence has a way of jumping on his opponents early and looking to take them out. At the start of Spence’s career, he was a little more calculated than he is now. He used to apply his boxing kills a little bit in winning his fight. But in Spence’s last four contests, he’s gone right after his opponents and chopped them down with heavy shots to the head and body.

Keith Thurman says he’ll be watching the Spence vs. Bundu fight because he wants to be able to measure how Spence does against him. Thurman knocked Bundu down and beat him by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 120-107, 120-107 and 120-107 in 2014. That was a really lopsided score, but Thurman was unwilling to try and punch with Bundu in that fight because he was getting hit on the inside and he did not look comfortable with that experience. Spence is willing to get hit so that he can get a knockout ain win over more boxing fans. Spence won’t be satisfied with just getting the decision win. He wants the KO to show the world the difference between him and Thurman.

Spence and Bundu’s fight will have ramifications for IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook, because he’ll need to fight the winner of this fight at some point in the future. The Spence vs. Bundu fight is an IBF eliminator bout. The winner gets a title shot at the IBF 147lb belt. The loser will need to go into a rebuilding stage to their careers. Bundu is already had to do that after his loss to Thurman in 2014. Bundu has won his last two fights against Jussi Koivula and Pablo Munguia. Bundu only fought once in 2015. It’s too bad though because it would have been better if Bundu had taken at least one more fight so that he could have worked on his boxing skills more, because he’s going to need them for the Spence fight.