Errol Spence Jr. ‘I’m already back down in weight’

By Boxing News - 06/07/2020 - Comments

By Jeff Aronow: Errol Spence Jr. says he’s got his weight down and he’s ready to restart his career once the lockdown ends. Spence (26-0, 22 KOs) is focused and ready to defend his IBF/WBC welterweight titles against Danny Garcia later this year.

That’s going to be a tough fight for Spence, and he can’t afford to be draining down from 180+ pounds against Danny as he did for the Mikey Garcia match.

A lot of boxing fans have been concerned about Spence’s weight because he looked heavy and puffy a few months ago. Additionally, he’s coming off of car crash that took place last October, and there’s doubt in the eyes of fans whether he’ll be able to come back from that.

“I can’t wait to get back into the ring too. I’m already back down in weight,” said Errol Spence on social media.

There are some fans that would like to see Spence take a tune-up before he faces the dangerous puncher Danny Garcia. However, Danny (36-2, 21 KOs) is the equivalent of a tune-up fight for Spence.

If Errol can’t beat a fighter like Garcia, then he has no business talking about wanting to fight Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford. Those are guys that are above Danny in talent and overall ability.

Danny, 32, won’t give up the ship easily. He’s going to be looking to test Spence’s chin with every left hook shot he throws in the fight. Garcia hasn’t fought a body puncher like Spence, and it should be interesting to see how well he handles getting hit to the midsection.

Image: Errol Spence Jr. 'I'm already back down in weight'

Crawford fight needs to make sense money-wise

“I get my feet wet against the top guys,” said Spence to Brian Custer’s Last Stand Podcast. “We [Terence Crawford] want to fight, but Al Haymon and Bob Arum. I call them the guys in the suits. The guys in the suits want to make sure it makes sense money-wise.

“They want to make sure everybody gets their slice and their fair share. So they want to make sure that’s right before the fight happens. They did that with Mayweather-Pacquiao.

“The money was so big; they had to fight. Everybody wants to make sure the money is right, and everybody gets their fair slice, and then the fight will happen. It’ll definitely happen.

“Little bit,” said Spence when asked if he gets annoyed when he reads stuff on the Internet about people comparing him to Terence Crawford. “Sometimes, I get agitated. It depends on what mood I’m in.

“Sometimes I’m, ‘What is this dude talking about?’ Sometimes someone is talking crazy. I don’t watch that at all. If someone has a fair go at me and a fair go at Terence, then I may watch it,” said Spence.

Errol’s adviser Al Haymon and Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, will need to decide whether it makes sense to make the fight in 2021. Crawford hasn’t shown himself to be a pay-per-view guy during his 12-year career.

A fight between Crawford and Spence might not even do the numbers that the Errol vs. Mikey Garcia fight pulled in. It might be better for Spence to wait until Arum builds up Crawford’s popularity more by putting him in with notable opposition.

The problem is, Crawford has fought the B and C-level fighters his entire career, and he’s not been able to expand his fan base because of that.

Pacquiao = the match Spence wants

“I’d say Pacquiao and me fighting in the Philippines,” said Spence when asked what’s the equivalent of Anthony Joshua facing Tyson Fury for the welterweight division.

“Fury-Joshua fighting in the UK would be crazy. Wembley is where they hold 80K, right? They’ll sell that place out with 90K easy for that fight. It’ll be huge with just the talking that Fury does with the way he hypes up the fight and stuff like that.

“That’ll be a huge fight, but Fury has got to give my boy Deontay [Wilder] his rematch. He’s got to run that back one more time before he can challenge Joshua. But that’ll be a huge fight him and Joshua. That’ll do 90K easy,” said Spence.

Manny Pacquiao is unpredictable at this point in his career. He surprised people in choosing Keith Thurman to fight in his last match and may choose to fight someone you least suspect.

Spence wants the Pacquiao fight, but he might not get it. Trainer Freddie Roach said this week that Gennady Golovkin is someone that Manny might fight.

If Pacquiao fights Golovkin, then he won’t bother with Spence. The money will be too good for Manny in a clash against GGG.

If Spence fights Crawford, he would be doing him a favor by giving him a free ride in terms of the fan interest.

Image: Errol Spence Jr. 'I'm already back down in weight'

Fury’s win over Wilder surprised Errol

“I was shocked, I’m not going to lie,” said Spence when asked if he was surprised at how Fury dominated Wilder in the rematch last February. “How he [Fury] controlled the action from the start to the pint where the fight was over.

“I think you’ve got to credit that more to what’s his trainer’s name? Sugar? Sugarhill. He did a great job coming forward. I felt like he changed him up a lot.  He was a lot more aggressive. You’ve got to give a lot of credit to the coach, and he had him using that Kronk style.

“Deontay, I hope he’s more focused and training more. He hasn’t been talking as much and hasn’t been calling out. I hope his head is on straight and he’s ready to get his titles back. He’s always supported me throughout my career.

“I’m always going to root for my countryman just like they root for their guy in the UK,” said Errol.

Tyson Fury’s win over former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder surprised everybody. Fury’s American trainer Sugarhill did a great job with him.

Kell Brook’s British fans turned on Spence

When I foot Kell Brook, the whole week, they [British boxing fans] were cool,” said Spence on his fight with Brook in 2017 in Sheffield.  “‘Do you want to take pictures?’ But the day of the fight, I was getting mean-mugged. I was getting looked at dirty.

“I thought I had something on my face with the way they were looking at me, said Spence. “That’s how it is over there. Their hometown guy, they’re going to root for their guy. They’re going to root for their guy 100%. With us, we don’t root for our guy 100%,” said Spence.

Fighting Kell Brook in his hometown of Sheffield, England put Spence in a situation where he was out there all by himself. Fighting Brook in front of 30,000 fans had to have been an intimidating experience for Spence.

Back in 2017, Brook was still more or less close to his best. He had just come off an injury-related loss to Golovkin, and he wasn’t quite at 100%, but still, he was very talented.
Image: Errol Spence Jr. 'I'm already back down in weight'

Errol rates Brook as toughest fight

“Probably the Kell Brook fight,” said Spence when asked what his toughest fight was. “The Kell Brook fight, that was my longest layoff. It was eight or nine months. Going over there and eating different foods and training camp.

“I went over there two weeks before. I was training at the Amir Khan gym. The food that I was eating. I was kind of used to it because of my international as an amateur. It helped me out a lot, but I’d much rather have to fight at home.

“It was a great experience, especially when I got there fighting in front of 30,000 fans. They’re booing you and throwing chocolate stuff at you when you’re coming out and things like that. It was great to get over.

“Once I got over, I was ‘Man.’ When I watched it on Youtube, I thought, ‘I fought in front of 30,000 of his fans and beat him and shut them all up.’

“The crazy part about it is once I beat him, I looked at the crowd, and everybody was gone. Everybody was gone. There was nobody in the crowd. ‘Where is everybody at?’ Everybody was gone. It just cleared out,” said Spence.

Shawn Porter probably won’t like hearing Spence say that Brook was his toughest fight because he feels that he gave him a hard fight last September. Spence barely beat Porter by a 12 round split decision. Some boxing fans even think Porter deserved the win.

If you look at the Spence-Brook fight, Spence was having legitimate problems with him before he suffered an eye injury in the first half of the battle. In the Porter fight, Spence looked like the better guy throughout the match.

“Roman ‘Chocolatito,’ he’s a bad dude,” said Spence when asked who he likes to watch on TV. “Jermall and Jermell Charlo. They might be kind of crazy, but they are my dudes. I love their style, man.