By Allan Fox: Errol Spence Jr. says he’ll be back inside the ring in December to defend his IBF welterweight title. The unbeaten Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) says a fight between him and lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (35-0, 30 KOs) can definitely happen.
Mikey has talked of wanting to move up to 147 to challenge Spence for his IBF title. Mikey, 30, likes the idea of proving his many doubters wrong by beating Spence. There were plenty of doubters who didn’t believe Mikey could beat Adrien Broner and Sergey Lipinets when he moved up to 140 and defeated them in consecutive fights. But it would be a much different story for Mikey to move up to welterweight to defeat a fighter like Spence, who can actually fight and has huge punching power and size. Garcia, 30, might be beaten by Spence’s size alone.
“It can happen,” Spence said to ES News Reporting about a fight against Mikey Garcia. ”I’m fighting probably in December.”
Spence won’t get much credit for fighting a smaller guy like the 5’6” Mikey Garcia. There’s nothing to gain for Spence in beating Garcia. If Spence destroys Garcia, he’ll get zero credit from boxing fans. And if Spence loses or struggles against Mikey, it’ll hurt his career. Vasyl Lomachenko received no credit from fans for beating super bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux in their fight last December. Rigondeaux moved up two weight classes to fight Lomachenko at super featherweight, and he was too small to compete.
It’s more likely than not that Spence will have to be satisfied facing another opponent in December besides Garcia. It’s highly unlikely that Garcia will want to tangle with Spence in 2018. Right now, it sounds good when Garcia says he wants to fight Spence next, but it’s highly unlikely to happen. Garcia would hurt his brand if he took the fight with Spence and was wiped out by him. Mikey did well in moving up to 140 to strategically pick out Sergey Lipinets and Adrien Broner, two beatable fighters, for him to pick up a couple of scalps. It would be a different story if Mikey had fought the best at light welterweight in Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor.
Spence went onto say that his first choice for his next fight would be to face the winner of the September 8 fight between Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter. Those two are battling for the vacant World Boxing Council welterweight title. Spence, 28, wants to unify the 147-pound division one title at a time by first capturing the WBC belt, and then going after the WBA belt hold by Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman, and then finally WBO champion Terence Crawford. Manny Pacquiao holds the WBA secondary welterweight title, but that belt would be a less desirable belt for Spence, as he wouldn’t be viewed as the real WBA champion.
Devon Alexander is also a possibility for Spence’s next fight if he gets past Andre Berto in their fight on August 4. Alexander figures to win that fight as long as he doesn’t gas out in the second half of the contest like he did against Victor Ortiz last February. Alexander vs. Ortiz was scored a 12 round draw.
The options for Spence’s fight in December are likely down to these guys:
– Yordenis Ugas
– Jessie Vargas
– Devon Alexander
– Mikey Garcia
– Danny Garcia
– Shawn Porter
– Kerman Lajarraga
– Rashidi Ellis
– Carlos Adames
– Keita Obara