Errol Spence targeting Canelo Alvarez for fight at 160 at Cowboys’ Stadium

By Boxing News - 10/19/2020 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Errol Spence Jr says he’d be interested in moving up to 160 to take on Canelo Alvarez soon for a fight at the 105,000 seat Cowboys’ Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) would have to move back down to the middleweight division for him to take on the unbeaten Spence (26-0, 21 KOs). Alvarez, 30, is currently campaigning at super middleweight in the 168-lb division after recently winning the WBO 175-lb belt.

Spence, 30, admits that he’s now having a hard time getting down to 147 for his fights. He feels that fighting Canelo at 160 would be easier on him because he wouldn’t have to trim off so much weight as he normally does.

Errol will be fighting Danny Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) next on December 5th in front of a limited crowd at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington. That fight will be Spence’s first since his car crash last year on October 9th in Dallas, Texas.

Many boxing fans are interested in seeing how Spence looks in the fight, as there’s concern that he’s not the same fighter. If the accident took something out of Spence, he could lose to the hard-hitting former two-division world champion Garcia.

Spence eager for Canelo stadium fight

Image: Errol Spence targeting Canelo Alvarez for fight at 160 at Cowboys' Stadium

“With Canelo, yeah, I’d definitely entertain that. That can happen, that’s a huge fight,” Spence said to The Sun.

“That would be huge for the Cowboys’ stadium when we’re back to 100 per cent capacity.

“That’s another mega-fight which I could have. I could have a lot of mega-fights,” said Spence.

Canelo is in the middle of a lawsuit against DAZN, Golden Boy Promotions, and Oscar De La Hoya. That case will need to conclusive for Spence to have any shot at fighting Alvarez in 2021.

With Canelo throwing his hat in the ring for a fight against Avni Yildirim for the vacant WBC 168-lb title, that could be his next match when he returns to the ring. If the litigation drags into next year, Canelo will likely look in a different direction for his next fight.

Spence’s best chance of getting a fight against Canelo would be for him to miss out on the Yildirim fight. Alvarez will need an opponent that interests DAZN if he stays with them after his lawsuit ends, and Spence would be the ideal guy.

Is Canelo vs. Spence doable?

Image: Errol Spence targeting Canelo Alvarez for fight at 160 at Cowboys' Stadium

One problem that could get in the way of a Canelo vs. Spence fight from taking place is the networks

Spence fights on FOX and Canelo on DAZN. How would a fight between them take place on pay-per-view if Canelo is still with DAZN? The idea behind DAZN is that boxing fans don’t need to worry about purchasing the high-priced PPV events any longer.

Spence’s idea of fighting Canelo would be for the contest to be shown on Fox PPV. The DAZN subscribers would expect to see Canelo face Spence on that platform without any additional cost.

If the fans were asked to pay to watch Canelo fight pence on DAZN, it’s predictable that many people would terminate their subscriptions.

“It takes quite a few pounds to get down to 147. I wouldn’t have any problems fighting at 160,” said Spence about his struggles to make welterweight

“But, at the end of the day, it’s down to the guys in suits.”

Canelo has never talked of wanting to fight Spence, but it’s possible he’d agree to it. This wouldn’t be the first time that Canelo has fought a welterweight. Four years ago, Canelo destroyed welterweight Amir Khan in six rounds in 2016. Khan moved up to middleweight to fight Canelo at catchweight of 155 pounds and was knocked unconscious by him.

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Spence took a lot of punishment in his last fight against Shawn Porter in September 2019, and it doesn’t bode well for him to be taking on a guy with Canelo’s power and size.