Virgil Hunter: Errol Spence overpowers Manny Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 03/20/2019 - Comments

Image: Virgil Hunter: Errol Spence overpowers Manny Pacquiao

By Chris Williams: Trainer Virgil Hunter says he sees IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. being too too strong for superstar Manny Pacquiao in a unification fight between them. Hunter thinks that Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs) will do a better job of being competitive than Mikey Garcia was last Saturday night in his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Spence, 29, in their fight on Fox Sports pay-per-view at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Spence vs. Pacquiao still isn’t official for July. Although Pacquiao climbed into the ring to accept a challenge to fight Spence next, it remains to be seen whether the fight will get put together or not. Pacquiao didn’t look overly excited in accepting Spence’s challenge. Unfortunately for Pacquiao, he doesnt have a lot of great options at welterweight for big money. If he faces Shawn Porter, Terence Crawford or Keith Thurman, there’s a good chance that he loses to all of them, and he would likely receive less attention fighting them than he would against Spence. If you look at it from that perspetive, it makes sense for Pacquiao to fight Spence to get the most attention, and possibly the biggest payday. Pacquiao can make more money fighting a rematch against 42-year-old Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he chooses to fight him again, but it doesn’t look like he’s willing to do so.

“I see Errol overpowering Manny at this stage,” Virgil Hunter said to AB Boxing News. “At the same time, I see Manny putting up a little bit more competition than Mikey did, because he’s been in the division for a while. But I favor Errol greatly,” Hunter said.

The lack of size for the 5’6 1/2″ Pacquiao would put him in a bad position of needing to overcome the 5’9 1/2″ Spence’s huge height and reach advantage. If Spence chooses to box Pacquiao from the outside like he did against Mikey Garcia last Saturday, then he’ll have no chance of winning. Pacquiao was able to overcome the huge height and reach of the 5’10” Oscar De La Hoya in 2008, but that was a different time and a different fighter. De La Hoya was old, weight drained, and completely shot at the time he took that fight against Manny. Moreover, Pacquiao was in the prime of his career with him having tons of speed and power going for him. However, even that version of Pacquiao would likely get knocked out by Spence, who would be quite happy to slug it out with a small guy like Pacquiao if he tried to punch with him the way he did against the over-the-hill, ring rusty and weight drained De La Hoya in 2008.

“It could [be a good fighter]. Manny showed that he still has a lot left in the [Adrien] Broner fight,” Malignaggi said to Fighthype when asked about the prospects of Manny Pacquiao fighting Spence. “Obviously, we’d like to see Manny against the high level guys. Whether you say it interest you or not, you’re going to watch that fight [Spence vs. Pacquiao], because Manny is a big name, and Errol is one of the up and coming guys that is looking to become a big star, and people kind of peg him as one of the future stars of the sport. So I think this is kind of a changing of the guard type of fights [i.e., Spence vs. Garcia]. Manny has a big following, and he’s still coming up with some very key wins to keep him relevant, and Errol is obviously in the prime of his career, and dominating very high level opposition like he just did over the weekend. So I think the fight makes sense, and I think it’s going to make dollars and cents too,” Malignaggi said.