By Sean Jones: Errol Spence Jr will be making his first performance on December 5th since his car crash last October, and he was to show the fans that he hasn’t lost a step. The way that Spence’s car was torn apart in the crash, boxing fans believe the worst about him.
Fighting in Texas in front of live fans will give Spence, a native of that state, a big advantage. If he needed a pick me up, he’d get it from his fellow Texans on December 5th.
They figure anyone involved in a car crash as bad as Spence’s has to be less than 100%. Spence’s Ferrari Spider looked like it had been put through a car smashing machine. Luckily for him, he was ejected upon impact, but that was a traumatic ordeal.
IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence (26-0, 22 KOs) is facing #2 WBC contender Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia (36-2, 21 KO) in a 12 round contest at AT&T Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.
Spence facing a big puncher
For the boxing fans that have money to burn, they can watch the Spence vs. Garcia fight live on Fox Sports pay-per-view on December 5th.
Unfortunately, this fight probably won’t bring in as many PPV buys as Spence’s previous title defense against Shawn Porter last year in September.
That was back before the pandemic hit, and fans worked and had the extra money to pay $75 to watch Spence and Porter brawl.
Spence will have a big puncher in front of him in Danny Garcia on December 5th, and we’ll have to see if he can handle his power for 12 rounds. Danny has a pretty good chin, so it’s probably not going to be possible for Spence to KO him.
“Having my comeback fight be in front of my hometown fans at AT&T Stadium is added motivation and a dream come true,” said Spence. “It means even more because I’m going up against a great champion in Danny Garcia.
Spence is a little misguided with him calling Danny a “great champion.” The truth is, Garcia hasn’t been a world champion since 2017 when he lost his WBC 147-lb title to Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman in a 12 round decision defeat.
Garcia did capture the WBC Silver welterweight title, but that trinket hardly counts as a real belt. For Spence to be calling Garcia a “great champion,” he’s referring to the distant past when Danny was fighting at 140 and held the IBF and WBA light-welterweight straps. That was five years ago.
Danny not as effective at 147
Since Garcia moved up to 147 in 2015, he hasn’t been the same guy. Hence, Danny has lost two out of his last five fights. You’re not a great champion when you lose that many fights close together.
“I know people are looking out to see if I’ve lost a step or won’t be at my best, but I’m 100% focused and everything is on point in training camp,” Spence said. “I just can’t wait to go out there on December 5 and put on a show.”
Spence doesn’t know how he’s going to be able to handle the power from Danny. I mean, it’s easy for Errol, 30, to say that he’s cogent and the same guy he once was, but you never know. Danny might not be a “great champion” anymore, but he can still punch with the best of them.
Suppose that car crash knocked something loose in Spence’s brain housing. Garcia has got the brute strength to exploit that. In normal situations, fighters are given tune-ups after they’ve been through a horrific ordeal like the one Spence went through.
You can imagine someone from Spence’s team tried to talk some sense into him to gently let him know that he should take at least one tune-up against a bottom feeder in the division to test out his punch resistance to make sure he doesn’t crumble after the first punch.
Can Errol still take a punch?
Knowing his Spence is, he probably was resistant to that idea and dug in in his heels when someone suggested that he take a tune-up. If this doesn’t work out well for Spence on December 5th, he’s the one that will own the loss.
With Spence, it’s not just his punch resistance that you have to question; it’s his ability to be strong after making weight. Spence packed on a lot of pounds in the wake of the car crash and looked as big as a house. He put on so much weight that it didn’t look like Spence anymore. His face was swollen up with the weight, and he looked in horrible condition.
It’s a credit to Spence that he’s been able to lose the weight, but you don’t know how he’ll deal with that. Will Spence be drained, weak and chinny on December 5th. That would be a terrible witches brew that Spence would hinder him.
Danny doesn’t have to be the greatest boxer in the world. With his brute strength, he could bludgeon a weight-drained Spence into submission. That’s why Spence would have been better to put off the Danny Swift fight until 2021 and a take a warm-up fight against someone like Amir Khan, Ray Robinson, or Josh Kelly.
‘The Truth’ looking ripped
Right now, Spence is looking ripped, but that doesn’t mean anything. He could end up overtraining. For Spence to be looking this shredded two months before the fight with Danny, he’s asking for trouble. He could come into the fight looking emaciated like Oscar De La Hoya did in the final fight of his career against Manny Pacquiao in 2008.
Danny’s dad/trainer Angel Garcia is likely going to be instructing him to swing for the fences on December 5th and focus on throwing nothing but headshots against Spence. Angel will be betting on Spence not being the same fighter that he was before the car crash.
It’s safe to say that if Spence is only 70% of what he was, Danny will knock him to the moon with one of his left hooks. Garcia is a lethal puncher, especially with his left hand. Also, when he knows his opponents are hurt, he’s a great finisher. Danny might come into the fight like a shark, smelling blood in the water from the opening round and looking to tear Spence limb from limb.
Spence vs. Garcia could also be a terribly boring fight. If Spence elects not to take any chances due to his car crash and the fact that he’s been dumped on about his poor defense in his last fight against Shawn Porter, he could choose to box.
The fans will be furious if Spence makes it boring because they’ll be paying $75 to see the contest. With this horrible economy, $75 is $500. That $75 is like gold, and it’s a lot of money to be paying for one fight.
Errol will have a lot of pressure on him
The Spence-Garcia undercard is a skeleton crew of mostly mismatches between contenders that will likely never win world titles. You hate to say it, but the undercard is lackluster, and there are no halfway decent fights to say that it’s worth paying $75 for the card.
As such, that’s why it’s important that Spence NOT play it safe on December 5th because his fight is the only thing that matters on the card. If he makes it exciting, then the fans will feel they got their money’s worth. If he makes it boring like some fans believe he will, it could hurt future pay-per-view fight cards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQID507_WpY&t=113s
Spence needs to make sure he comes out of the blocks hard early in the fight because he can’t afford to give away the early rounds. Danny is the type of fighter who comes on in the second half of his fights.
If Garcia can win at least four out of the first six fights, it could be interesting in the second half. If the fight is close and Danny loses, Angel Garcia will muddy the water by screaming ‘robbery at the post-fight news conference.
Spence may have to fight Danny in a rematch to get Angel to quiet down and stop with the robbery claims.