By Allan Fox: Errol Spence’s trainer Derrick James reports that he can’t fly to Saturday’s fight between Manny Pacquiao and Yordenis Ugas in Las Vegas because the air pressure in the plane would damage his surgically repaired eye.
James says Spence can drive to the Pacquiao-Ugas fight but not fly to it. It’s unknown if Spence will drive because he lives in Texas, and unless he’s in the Las Vegas area, it would be a terribly long drive.
It would be great for Spence to be at the fight, but it could prove to be difficult for him to attend.
Last week, Spence had eye surgery to repair a torn left retina, which forced him to pull out of the fight.
Derrick says he found out about the injury after Spence called him and broke the news to him that the commissioner hadn’t approved him after his eye problem showed up during the pre-fight examination.
Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) will be taking on replacement opponent WBA welterweight Ugas (26-4, 12 KOs) this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Spence can’t fly to Pacquiao vs. Ugas fight
“It bursts his eyeball because of the air pressure,” said Derrick James to ESNEWS when asked if Spence will be at ringside on Saturday for the Pacquiao vs. Ugas fight. “He can’t travel [via airplane]. He can drive, but the altitude bursts his eyeball.
“On Monday when he told me,” said James when Spence told him about his injury. ”
“Months,” said James on how long Spence had been preparing for the Pacquiao fight. “His shoulders were killing him. He sacrificed and spent a lot of money, but it’s part of the game.
“We like Ugas. I want him to go out and make the best of his opportunity. I know he’s real.”
“He’s OK. He had surgery, and it’s been a little over a week. It’s the healing process,” James said about Spence to K.O Artists Sports. “It was a tear of his retina.
“It was his eye, so you can’t go into a battle or a fight with something like that. The doctor said he needed to have it done yesterday.
“He knew it was bad. He had it done the next day after he got home. If he had not waited so long to have his physical, he would have fought with it. The effect would have shown afterward, and he could have lost his eyesight,” said James about Errol.
It’s good that Spence’s eye injury was detected during the physical because if he’d gone into the fight with the problem, he might have further injured his eye.
James reacts to Hopkins’ comments
“I heard he said something, but I never looked at it. I never watched the video,” said James when asked if he’d heard what Bernard Hopkins had said about him doubting Spence was injured.
“People’s closest reference to anything in life is themselves. So if I live my life like this, I think you do the same thing.
“Maybe he [Hopkins] would do something like that [fake an injury]. I’m not saying he did. That’s his reference.
“How do you just assume somebody did that? You had a guy [Spence] who had a car crash, and he came back and fought the toughest opponent [Danny Garcia] that he could fight.
“But he’s going to pull out of this fight that he asked for? [against Pacquiao]. He asked for this fight.
“Not only that. He [Spence] spent so much money on sparring partners and housing them. He spent all that money. What are you talking about? It’s crazy.
“You can’t be scared of a guy that you asked for to fight,” said James in continuing to address the conspiracy theorists saying that Spence faked his injury. “I just think that’s asinine what they’re saying,” said James.
It’s odd how so many people suspect that Spence faked injury, even though he’s never shown himself to be the type of person to fake an injury.
Boxing fans are trying to make sense of Spence pulling out, and the only thing they can grab hold of is the wacky idea that he faked an eye injury to avoid Pacquiao.
Errol spent a lot of money on training
“It’s the most money [that Spence would have ever made],” said James. He spent more money in training camp than he’d ever spent before. I found out [about Spence’s injury] from a phone call.
“He went to go meet with the commissioner, and his eye was tested and everything. He called me and said, ‘I didn’t get approved, and the fights off.’ They told me everything about it, so what can I say? My guy’s health is more important than anything else.
“It’s going to be interesting,” said James on the Pacquiao vs. Ugas fight. “Ugas has been very successful against left-handed fighters. So we’ll see. He’s never fought any left-handed fighters on this level,” said Derrick.
All the money that Spence put into his training camp for the Pacquiao fight, it’s all wasted, and he winds up getting nothing in return.
If Spence is lucky, Pacquiao will offer him a fight after his eye heals, but that may not happen. A loss for Pacquiao on Saturday night against Yordenis Ugas will probably wreck Spence’s chance of getting a fight.
