By Chris Williams: Errol Spence Jr. says his weight is on point, and he feels “super strong” for his April 16th unification fight against WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas on April 16th on Showtime PPV at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
IBF/WBC 147-lb champion Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) reveals that he’s kept his weight down since his last fight against Danny Garcia in 2020, and he’s not had to put on a sauna suit to cut 30 pounds to drop weight for the contest.
Ring rust won’t be a problem for the 32-year-old Spence despite coming off a long 16-month layoff since his last fight against Danny Garcia in December 2019.
Spence says the sparring and the mitt workouts he’s done in the gym has made him fight-ready, showing him that he’s ready to take on Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) on April 16th.
If not for Spence’s eye injury he suffered training last year, he would have fought against Manny Pacquiao in August 2021. It was bad luck on Spence’s part, as he missed out on a chance of a lifetime to share the ring with the 42-year-old legend Pacquiao.
In the undercard of the Spence vs. Ugas fight on April 16th, we have these excellent fights:
- Radzhab Butaev vs. Eimantas Stanionis
- Brandun Lee vs. Zachary Ochoa
- Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa
- Francisco ‘El Bandito’ Vargas vs. James Valenzuela
- Cody Crowley vs. Josesito Lopez
Errol’s weight is not a problem
“Camp has been great. I’ve been training hard, super focused, leaving no stones unturned, and listening to my coach,” said Errol Spence Jr. to PBC Podcast when asked about how his training has gone for his fight with Ugas on April 16th.
“He’s coming up with a great game plan and making sure everything is on point by the time April 16th comes,” said Spence. “I’ll just be a full beast before I get in the ring.
“No, what Oscar De La Hoya did is he weighed in at 147 and came into the fight at 148, 149. So after the weigh-in, he only gained two pounds, which was crazy” said Spence when asked if he’s concerned about keeping his weight near fighting weight could weaken him like it did for De La Hoya when he fought Manny Pacquiao in 2008.
“For me, if I weighed in at 147, I’m going to come into the fight at 160 or 161. That’s why I feel he was so weak because he was so depleted and didn’t put anything back in his body,” said Spence about De La Hoya.
“Our bodies are like computers. Our bodies adapt to anything, so if you’re at a weight long enough, your body adapts to it, and you’ll fill out.
“Right now, I feel my body has adapted to it, and I feel strong in the weight class. I mean, at the weight that I’m at right now. Even sparring of 12 rounds, I still feel strong in sparring with 30 seconds rest. I feel strong right now.
“It’s a lot better than being 30 pounds heavier than your weight and putting on a sauna suit trying to lose that weight. So, I take that over that pain any day,” said Spence.
Spence is not worried about Ugas
“I’m working on my craft, and I’m not getting fighters that fight just like Ugas,” said Spence on what he’s doing during training camp.
“I’m making sure I’m doing things correctly, making sure my reflexes are on point, my punches are sharp, and making sure I have a variety of punches, and they’re all clicking at the same time.
“No, I wasn’t surprised at all,” said Spence when asked if he was surprised that Yordenis Ugas beat Manny Pacquiao last year. “Manny’s not the same Manny. I feel the one thing that defeats everybody is old age, father time. So, I definitely wasn’t surprised that he beat him.
“We know that Pacquiao is basically balls to the wall as far as throwing punches and making it an all-out war if he thinks that he’s down. I felt like he wanted to do it but couldn’t do it. I wasn’t surprised. He [Ugas] did his thing and defeated the legend.
“I think everybody has a game plan until they get in there. He can say whatever he wants, but he’s the trainer and will be looking from the outside.
“It all sounds good until you get in the ring,” said Spence when told that Ugas’ trainer Ismael Salas said that his high work rate will leave him vulnerable,” said Errol.
Ring rust is not an issue
“I can do different things. I’m basically well-rounded enough to do everything,” said Spence. “I can adapt and switch it up if I need to, change it up to what I can, and do whatever it takes to get the victory.
“He’s a thinker in there, super sharp with his right hand, and for me, it’s not really his game,” said Spence about what Ugas brings to the fight.
“I feel like as long as I’m super sharp and super strong, I feel that my abilities, I feel like I don’t have anything to worry about from him.
“It’s just for me to stay sharp and focused and keep my eye on this fight and this fight only. I feel like I’m going to become victorious.
“I feel like you don’t have ring rust when you’re in the gym, fully focused, in the gym sparring, hitting the mitts and things like that,” said Spence when asked if he’s concerned that he’ll be coming off of a 1 1/2 year layoff for this fight with Ugas.
“I feel like ring rust is about your mindset, and I feel that I’m not going to have ring rust because I feel like a fight is like sparring. I feel like if I’m sharp in sparring and sharp in the gym, I’m going to be sharp on fight night.
“I feel it’s different for a lot of people because they don’t believe sparring is just like the fight, and fighting is just like sparring. They separate it. For them, the fight is way more pressure on them than sparring.
“So a lot of times, they struggle under the bright lights because they haven’t been under the bright lights for so long. For me, whether it’s sparring or a fight, I feel like I’m at home regardless. For me, it doesn’t really matter where I’m at,” Errol said.
Spence feels he’s the same
“Nah, I feel like I was at in sparring and working out,” said Spence when asked if there was any point in his last fight against Danny Garcia in 2020 where he felt that he was his old self, ‘The Truth,’ after coming off a year layoff and a terrible car crash in 2019.
“No, that didn’t happen at all. I felt that he hit hard, but with the way everybody else was talking about, ‘I’m going to have to find out what he hit like and hit me on my arms are something,'” said Spence when asked if Danny Garcia was the biggest puncher he’s ever faced.
“In the first round, everybody was talking about like he was the biggest puncher ever to where if he touched you, you’re going to sleep. I was like, ‘We’ll see.’ He hit me; it wasn’t like everybody was talking about.
“It was hard, but it wasn’t what Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter were saying. It’s hard, but not like he’s a knockout artist hard, but it was definitely hard.
“I feel like I’m 100%, and have been looking 100% in sparring and working out and training and things like that,” Spence said when asked if he’s the same fighter he once was before his 2019 car crash in Dallas, Texas.
“People are going to have to tune in to the fight and find out with their own eyes that I am 100%. We’ll see April 16th if I’m 100%.
“I feel like I’m more organic and real. I’m a guy that you’d see at Walmart with a muscle shirt and sweatpants on and some slippers.
“Even in a mall, I be having slippers on and no socks, muscle shirt, sweats, and just walking in the mall by myself or my girlfriend or with my kids and things like that.
“I feel like I’m someone that people can touch, and I’m not that larger than life personality where I can’t be that person. They see me as a genuine dude, and my job is to box. Once I’m not boxing, I’m back to regular life and doing the same things that normal people do.
“Being more active and not getting injured at all as I have in sitting out for a long time,” said Spence when asked how he envisions 2022 for him.
“Just being active. I want to be active as soon as this fight is over with. I want to be talking about my next fight. So, just staying in the gym, being active, and fighting more, making more out of these three or four years I’ve got left,” said Spence.
