By Chris Williams: Errol Spence Jr. fired back at his many critics who have cast doubts on him having a torn left retinal that forced him out of his August 21st fight against Manny Pacquiao.
IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) says why would he fake an injury to avoid fighting a “Hall of Famer’ star like Pacquiao, as this is a fight that he’d been asking for a long time.
Beating Pacquiao would have made Spence a mountain of money, and turned him into an even bigger PPV star than he is now. A win over Pacquiao would have been the passing of the torch to Spence, who would have taken over as the #1 PPV attraction in boxing.
Spence already had eye surgery and he’s slowly recovering. He hopes to begin running in the next three weeks, and then start sparring in two months.
Errol missed out on Pacquiao fight
Unfortunately, the opportunity to fight 42-year-old Pacquiao is like no longer there for Spence, as the Filipino star was handily beaten by replacement opponent Yordenis Ugas last Saturday night.
Although Pacquiao is considering facing WBA ‘Super World’ welterweight champion Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) in a rematch, the chances are high that he’ll lose again to the talented Cuban fighter.
For the sake of argument, if Pacquiao does win the second fight against Ugas, his career will likely be over anyway because he’s running for the presidential election in the Philippines next March, and he’s got an excellent chance of winning.
Pacquiao isn’t going to continue boxing if he becomes president of the Philippines. I mean, it’s one thing for Manny to still be fighting while holding a senatorial position in his country, but it’s a different kettle of fish being the president.
That’s too much responsibility and time required for that job for Pacquiao to be taking a two-month break to fight two to three times per year.
Spence stood to gain everything
“It’s freaking Manny Pacquiao, future Hall of Famer, future legend, undoubtedly top 10 all-time,” Spence said to ESPN. “One of the greatest fighters of all time.
“And I drop out of a fight with him two weeks before the fight? That doesn’t make sense. Not to mention all the money we would make off the pay-per-view. I called him out two years ago in the ring. It’s not like he handpicked me. I have been asking to fight him.”
“I can’t do nothing but walk,” Spence says. “And I know I can’t spar for probably like two months. But I’m optimistic about when I can start jogging. Hopefully, that will be the next three weeks or so,” said Spence.
It’s crazy for anyone to think that Spence faked an eye injury to get out of the fight with Pacquiao. Errol had everything to gain from taking that fight.