Errol Spence is becoming the new Floyd Mayweather, just minus the mouth
Errol Spence is the best fighter in boxing, it’s just too bad he does not have the mouth to tell you all about it.
The native of DeSoto returned to the ring for the first time since he flipped and crashed his Ferrari 14 months ago to fight Danny Garcia on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Spence looks like the same fighter, because he is the same fighter. In an entertaining but not spectacular fight, Spence steadily pressured and pointed his way to a convincing win over Garcia to retain his WBC and IBF welterweight championship belts.
In front of just over 16,000 socially-distanced fans at Jerry World, Spence won a unanimous decision to improve to 27-0.
“I proved I’m back and I’m here to stay,” Spence said after the fight.
We are watching the closest fighter boxing has seen since Floyd Mayweather was in his prime, with one major exception.
Mayweather was/is a brilliant self-promoter. But Spence does not possess that gene, the ability to create intense feelings for himself one way or the other, and — perhaps more importantly — to get those legions to watch his every move. Even if they hate him.
On Sunday, the 43-year-old Mayweather announced he will fight YouTube personality Logan Paul in an exhibition fight in February. Paul knocked out former NBA guard Nate Robinson in an exhibition bout on Nov. 29.
Unless Spence has a personality makeover, it’s hard to ever see him fighting a YouTube star.
Whatever concerns people (me?) had about Spence coming back from the car crash he ended early in the fight against Garcia. Spence was just as dominant Saturday night as he was in his previous recent fights against Shawn Porter and Mikey Garcia.
“I give myself a B. I think I had a little bit of ring rust in there,” Spence said to the media after the fight.
According to CompuBox, Spence landed 26 percent of the 707 punches he threw, compared to 17 percent for Garcia.
Neither fighter was knocked down, but Spence hounded Garcia and would not let him string much together. It was not until the final eight seconds of the 12th round when the underdog threw a flurry of punches that landed.
It was the only time of the fight Garcia landed multiple punches in a row.
Spence never fatigued, and again showed the ability to grow stronger as the fight went on. He is a brilliant technical fighter, and, like Mayweather, is so well conditioned he wears down opponents by never getting tired.
Spence also is starting to show the same characteristic as Mayweather: He makes every opponent look the same.
Spence will be a bit more aggressive and take more risks than Mayweather, whose trademark was his ability to avoid punches better than any boxer ever has.
This weight class is loaded with quality fighters, and boxing has a few other marketable names, but Spence is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world.
Now that Spence conclusively demonstrated he is the same fighter as he was before the accident, whom will he fight next?
Spence would only say he plans to fight next summer. He didn’t name names.
Potential challenger Terence “Bud” Crawford would be a top draw, but it’s hard to envision the respective camps of either fighter wanting this potential big pay-day fight in 2022. Crawford was in attendance at the fight on Saturday night.
“I’m not worried about Terence Crawford,” Spence said.
And going by how Spence is fighting, there may not conquerors out there. This might only be about finding challengers.
Shawn Porter lobbied multiple times for a rematch with Spence during the Fox PPV telecast, where Porter served as a commentator. Not sure Spence would bother with Porter again.
Spence has previously talked about fighting Manny Pacquiao so he could send the 41-year-old into retirement. Manny has not expressed much interest in fighting Spence.
A Spence v. Canelo Alvarez fight, preferably in Texas, would be an enormous draw. But there is the issue of weight.
Someone tried to corner Spence and ask him about fighting Canelo, but he did his best Mayweather and slipped the tag.
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 12:17 AM.
