By Jim Maltzman: Errol Spence Jr had a photo posted of him after his eye surgery today to repair a tear of his left retinal. The injury wiped out Spence’s title defense against Manny Pacquiao on August 21st on FOX Sports PPV, and he’s now been replaced by Yordenis Ugas.
The injury is of the nature that Spence’s career could be in jeopardy, which would be a terrible loss for him and the boxing world.
Even if Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) does come back from the injury, likely, he won’t get another chance to fight Pacquiao, who is at the end of his career.
For the casual boxing fans who aren’t familiar with WBA welterweight champion Ugas (26-4, 12 KOs), this fighter has a real shot at beating Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) and it wouldn’t be a fluke thing.
Get well soon, champ! 🦈 pic.twitter.com/69vyROx2fJ
— Premier Boxing Champions (@premierboxing) August 11, 2021
It’s going to be a while before we know if Spence will be able to continue fighting. If he has vision problems, he’ll have to decide whether to undergo further surgery in hopes of the problem being repaired.
There are many unknowns that Spence will be dealing with in the coming months.
Spence missed his big chance
“I’m very disappointed and more disappointed for him because that was going to be his biggest payday, first of all,” said Jeff Mayweather on Spence’s eye injury messing up his mega-fight with Pacquiao.
“Secondly, it was going to be his way to take over, and if he were to win, it would have been a passing of the torch.
“Basically, he would have been in the same circle as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd [Mayweather]. So there’s a lot that has been lost because of that injury.
“It’s got to be devastating because here it is, you have a chance to actually become what you want to become, and all of a sudden, that injury comes from nowhere. I’m just hoping he gets better and can come back one last time.
“He’s not being able to add to his legacy,” said Jeff about Spence. “Every time something happens where Errol can take this fight and become the next big thing, but it’s just not happening.
“We don’t know, we just don’t know,” Jeff said when asked if Spence can come back from this injury.
“I feel bad for him because this was his moment, and the injury took it away. I just hope he recovers 100% and can come back, but when he comes back, Manny Pacquiao will probably be gone,” said Jeff.
If Pacquiao looks poor against Ugas and loses or struggles to win, he’ll likely hang up the gloves. Pacquiao will see the writing on the wall, and he won’t want to risk getting beaten up by Spence at that point.
Errol’s career is in limbo
“We don’t know, even when he comes back from that kind of injury, if he’s ever going to be the same because sometimes when you have a detached retina, you can’t come back. You never know.
“That’s a tough fight,” Jeff said about Pacquiao facing Yordenis Ugas. “But I think Pacquiao is going to beat him, but Ugas is a really tough fight.
“The most important thing for Pacquiao is just to win because as long as he wins, I think that’s still going to be in it.
“If he [Pacquiao] wins this fight, the first thing he’s going to do is to call out Floyd. So I already know that. He and Canelo can’t live with those losses [to Mayweather].
“I don’t think so,” said Jeff when asked if there was any chance Mayweather will give Pacquiao and Canelo rematches.
“He [Mayweather] beat your a** already, so he doesn’t have to do it again,” Jeff said in ruling out Floyd giving Canelo and Pacquiao a second fight.
It’s pretty obvious at this point that Canelo and Pacquiao won’t get a rematch with Mayweather, as he’s very, very old-looking now. With the hair and the overall look of Mayweather, he now resembles a person in their early to mid-50s.
Appearance-wise, Mayweather has skipped past the 40s look and jumped straight to a person in their 50s, which is bad news for him if he attempted to fight Pacquiao, Canelo, or any active top-level fighter.
The Mayweather that we saw against YouTuber Logan Paul recently he’d be food for Pacquiao and Canelo. Although Mayweather, 44, is only two years older than Pacquiao, he didn’t age as well as him.
