By Chris Williams: Errol Spence is completely unconcerned about the threat Danny Garcia poses for him this Saturday night in their long-awaited fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Spence and Garcia were supposed to fight last January on Fox Sports pay-per-view, but those plans needed to be altered.
Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) is coming off a terrible car crash from a year ago, but he’s not worried about losing anything physically from the crash.
IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence says he’s had brain scans, and he’s checked out at 100% good health. The only thing Spence had to deal with was losing teeth, bumps, bruises, and cuts.
Spence says that even if he were at just 70% of what he once was, he’d still have enough left to defeat the former two-division world champion Garcia.
Spence vows to beat Garcia even at 70%
“Me and my coach have been working since July trying to get back, staying 100% ready and focused for December 5th on Saturday night,” said Errol Spence. “I’m 100% healthy.
“I went to the clinic and got checked out, and went to the hospital, and they did all types of exams on me, MRIs and everything.
“They didn’t see any brain swellings, and they had me do reaction tests, and I passed them with flying colors. The first thing was my health, and everything checked out straight.
“I went back to the gym, and I started sparring in September. Then we got a fight with Danny Garcia, and everything has been going on schedule.
“It’s just a blessing that I’m able to come back so early and continue my career a little less than a year,” said Spence.
“For those mainstream sports fans that don’t know, Errol Spence is considered one of the special fighters in boxing, a tall, rangy, a southpaw, and one that can beat you with his jab and defense,” said Max Kellerman.
“He looks to punish his opponents with his knockout power. You have it all; you’re a complete fighter, Errol. But [Danny] Garcia is a very good fighter, and he has one close loss to Keith Thurman.
“He has one wider loss to Shawn Porter, but Shawn Porter gave you everything you wanted. That was a fight of the year type fight. I thought you won because of the knockdown late, which he got up from, but that was nip and tuck the whole way.
“How do you plan to come back from the accident actually to beat Danny Garcia? What’s the game plan?
“First of all, I could have beat Shawn Porter easy on the outside like I did Mikey Garcia, but my whole game plan for the Shawn Porter fight sine training camp was that I wanted to fight him,” said Spence.
“I wanted to show people I could beat him on the inside, and that’s what I did. Against Mikey Garcia, I wanted to show people I could box because people said that he had a better boxing IQ than me, so I showed people I can box.
“With this fight [Danny Garcia], I’m going to show people all around that I’m a better fighter on the inside, outside with the jab, combination, hooks, whatever you want to do in the ring,
“I can do better than Danny Garcia,” said Spence. “He’s a great fighter, iron chin, very tough, but I don’t think that even if I was at 70%, Danny couldn’t beat me,” said Spence.
With the kind of power, size, and talent Spence has, he could probably beat Garcia even if he only 50% of what he had pre-car crash.
There’s a huge gulf in talent between the two fighters, and that’s going to be readily apparent on Saturday night.
Spence is a better slugger, boxer, and the superior experience going for him. You got to respect Garcia for taking the fight with Spence, but the reason he finally agreed to the match is that he’s getting old. Garcia is 32 now, and he doesn’t have much time left before his career is done.
Errol: Nobody is running from Crawford
“I like Danny Garcia, he’s 36-2, and his only two losses were to Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter,” said Stephen A Smith. ”
I had you as my top two pound-for-pound in the world has ascended, and I know you don’t want to look ahead because you’re smart and don’t want to look past anybody, and you got to handle your business first.
“But when we talk about a fight we really want, it’s Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford; you got Terence Crawford talking about everybody running from him. Nobody wants to give him those fights. What do you have to say about him that?”
“I don’t really have anything to say about that. Nobody is running Terence Crawford,” said Spence. “As I said, I’m coming off of a car accident, and I have to fight Danny Garcia.
“So I have to get a tune-up, but I’m fighting Danny Garcia. I have to get past him before I can think about somebody else. Once I get past Danny Garcia, you can ask me questions about Terence Crawford,” said Spence.
It was funny to watch Spence shutdown, Kellerman and Smith, with their talk of wanting him to commit to a fight with the 33-year-old Crawford. That fight is not likely to happen as long as Crawford is with Top Rank, as it’s unrealistic.
Crawford isn’t helping things by saying he wants the lion’s share of the loot for the Spence fight with a 60-40. Greed will get Crawford nowhere fast, but if he feels that Spence only deserves 40% of the dough, more power to him.
I hope Crawford is happy spending the remainder of his career fighting mediocre welterweights like he’s been doing.
Spence focused 100 percent on Danny Garcia
“Well, Errol, the season people bring up Crawford is because in the history of boxing, almost never have there been two undefeated boxer/punchers, who were both elite pound-for-pound in and around their best weight division in their primes where it was a 50-50 fight,” said Kellerman.
“So to me, that’s the best fight in boxing in years that can be made. Apologies because I know you got a deal with Danny, but you were the one that said, ‘Anything you can do, I can do better.
“So if you indulge us for one second, is the idea that in the PBC where you are, you guys have all these welterweights and make money like you’re about to do against Danny Garcia.
“Then you’re waiting out Terence Crawford to see if his contract lapses and he crosses the street and goes with you guys and then fight him or do you think you would fight him and are interested as a fighter and as a champion in seeing who the best is like Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns once did whether or not he’s with the PBC.”
“I’m definitely interested in fighting Terence Crawford,” said Spence. “I think it’s a great fight. He has a world title, and I want to be the undisputed welterweight champion of the world, like I said.
“So I feel we’re going to have to cross that path soon, but my main goal is Danny Garcia on Fox Sports pay-per-view. I feel like that’s the best fight for me right now at this time, especially coming from my car crash.
“I have to give him out of the way before I can even think about somebody else. My 100% focus is on Danny Garcia right now, and then after that, we can talk about other opponents,” said Spence.
As you can tell, Max Kellerman and Stephen A. Smith of ESPN pushed Spence hard to get him to talk up a fight against Terence Crawford. It’s obvious why they were doing that.
Crawford is an ESPN fighter, at least for now, and it works in their favor if Spence faces Terence. The fight would be shown on ESPN.
Hence, Kellerman and Stephen A talked up a fight between Spence and Crawford rather than focusing on Errol’s upcoming match against Danny Garcia on Saturday.
You could tell that Spence was annoyed by Kellerman and Smith’s dogged determination to get him to talk about the ESPN fighter Crawford rather than Garcia, who is with PBC.
Errol wants to make a statement against Garcia
“When you think about Danny Garcia, he’s 36-2, and I think he’s an exceptional fighter,” said Smith. “He can obviously take a punch; he’s never been knocked out.
“The brother can fight. When you talk about fighting him, how big a fight do you think this is for you in how it can potentially catapult you in the mind’s eye.
“Do you think you’re already where you want to be, or do you feel you still have to have so much to prove because you’re underappreciated, and winning this fight can go a long way to accomplishing a more significant cache for yourself?”
“Danny Garcia’s resume, especially at 140, was great,” said Spence. “He was a unified champion.
“He was a great fighter, and I feel like nobody has really beaten him decisively and really put a hurting on him and punished him.
“For me to do that would speak volumes, especially with me coming off of a year’s layoff. So that’s what I’m looking to do. I’m looking for this to be a one-sided beating, especially in my hometown,” said Spence.
It’s possible that Spence can knockout Garcia, but only if he goes after him and is willing to get hit. Spence isn’t going to KO Garcia playing it safe as he did in his win over Mikey Garcia.
Keith Thurman looked like he was on his way to knocking out Garcia in 2017 after the first six rounds, but then he coasted in the second half and let him off the hook.
The fight turned out to be close due to Thurman becoming defense in the last six rounds.
Errol planning on giving Danny his worst beating ever
“Errol, sometimes when fighters talk about they were trying to do X or Y or Z in a fight, it’s excuse-making in a performance wasn’t great,” said Kellerman. “In your case, I believe in what you’re saying.
“You against Kell Brook in England, you walked him down and were the boxer-puncher and beat him out in a terrific fight. Against Mikey Garcia, it seemed clear to me that you wanted to beat him on the jab and defense, and that’s what you did.
“You were criticized for not knocking him out, but I actually thought it was a brilliant performance and you did prove that point.
“Are you saying now that is the goal in this fight to prove to Danny Garcia that you can go back to the fighter after the car crash that can beat you up, punish you and knock you out worse than anyone else has done it.
“You are using this as a measuring stick for Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, and that is the point in this fight. If you say that, I’ll believe what you say you’re going to do.”
“First of all, Keith Thurman, that’s not going to happen,” said Spence. “Secondly, everybody has been doubting me, saying, ‘Is he going to be a shell of himself? Is he the same fighter?’
“I’m a realist and a real person. I feel like people should be saying that because if I seen the car accident from the outside looking in, I’d say the same thing.
“I want to put on a great performance to show people that I’m still beating guys up and punishing them and making them quit mentally and physically.
“I’m going to try and put a beating on Danny Garcia and make it the worst beating he ever had in his boxing career,” said Spence.
It’s predictable that Spence is going to give Danny Garcia his worst beating of his career because he’s only fought a couple of talented fighters with any degree of power all these years. Garcia fought a lot of weaker punchers at 140 and 147.
Garcia’s best opponents:
- Mauricio Herrera
- Keith Thurman
- Robert Guerrero
- Pauli Malignaggi
- Lamont Peterson
- Zab Judah
- Erik Morales
- Shawn Porter
- Amir Khan
- Kendall Holt