Event: Errol Spence Jr. vs. Mikey Garcia

Date: March 16th, 2019

Network: Fox PPV

Time: 6 PM PST

Errol Spence Jr is the truth, or at least that is what his nickname implies.

In my estimations, Spence is the most avoided boxer in the welterweight division. Why? Well, for the pure fact that his side of the promotional street, the Premier Boxing Champions boxing brand, seemingly has every good welterweight with the exception of Terence “Bud” Crawford, who is signed to Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., and even with the IBF welterweight world title Spence seemingly can’t get dancing partners. The 2012 U.S. Olympian exists in a gray area, in which he has as marquee win beating Kell Brook in May of 2017 in England, where Brook is from but has seen inactivity and match-ups that the fans haven’t demanded, distrupt the minds of observers.

His first world title defense against Lamont Peterson, a former world champion was looked down upon, despite Peterson giving world champion Danny Garcia a tough fight. It seems like Spence can never win in the public eye, despite never losing in the ring as a professional.

THE NAYSAYERS

Spence has doubters. They doubt his resume, they doubt the hype, they want to see something substantial based on more than the eye test. They question how he could be ranked in pound-for-pound list, a fictional list that boxing nerds debate in order to pass time or magazines use to include to sell their magazine, essentially something that the average human being doesn’t think about. Narratives are narratives in boxing, and influential people have decided to not give Spence total credit for whatever reason, but Spence is really good, and that can’t be discredited.

Spence’s biggest win came over Kell Brook in a bout that Spence had to overcome adversity not just fighting Brook on hostile grounds, but in the fight itself. Spence was losing the first half, but came on strong in the second half stopping Brook in the eleventh round. 

The naysayers would point to Gennady Golovkin, a middleweight, whom Brook moved up two weight classes the fight before losing to Errol Spence and say that the damage Brook took from Golovkin, greatly damaging his eye, discrediting Spence’s win. I disagree, but it is still said.

Spence defeated former world champion Chris Algieri, but despite a fifth-round knockout of a very good fighter in Algieri, some would point to the fact that Algieri was suing Star Boxing, his promoter at the time of the fight over terms of money owed in his contract.

We can go on and on, but the fact is, whenever Errol Spence wins, a certain group of people who love boxing whether the media, fans or whomever, seem to have an excuse for why he isn’t the truth, despite passing every foreseeable eye test. 

“I put that pressure to look great on myself, not just because I’m undefeated or because everybody says this about me, I do it for myself to put on a great performance and a great show. I want to do that so great guys can look at me and think about if they want to fight me or not. That’s why a lot of guys don’t want to fight me.” said Spence at a media workout earlier this week .

In fact, it is slowly starting to seem like Spence might be one of these transcendent stars of a generation in boxing, if he keeps with the course.

BUT…

That being said, Spence now will have to his toughest fight to date as he faces four-division world champion Mikey Garcia, a man who started his career at featherweight, but in recent years moved up to super lightweight, one weight class below were Spence has campigned his whole career at and captured a world title. Garcia recently has been fighting at lightweight, which is two weight classes below Spence, but despite size advantage, Garcia is an undefeated confident professional, who might be the best Mexican boxer since Juan Manuel Marquez in terms of skill, and comes from a proven boxing family with his father Eduardo Garcia being his head coach and his brother, Robert Garcia, also running the camp.

For anyone to look at Errol Spence’s debut on pay-per-view next week, March 16th, on Fox PPV, as a showcase, would be dead wrong. Spence is in the hardest bout of his career, despite fighting in Texas, at the Cowboys Stadium, on the largest platform he has ever been exposed to. Oh, did I mention, Spence being from Texas, will add things such people ask for tickets the week of the fight and local outlets asking for his time.

Spence now has not just the highest rated network television fight when he fought Chris Algieri on NBC with a great assist to the 2016 Olympic Games which was the lead-in to the bout, but also now is on the verge of being one of the faces of boxing — if he can perform against Garcia. The key thing is he has to perform and Mikey Garcia is one of the best of his generation, and if he beats Spence he will be the best of his generation.

“This is definitely one of those crossover fights for me. Garcia is the biggest name to date that I’m fighting on American soil. It’s just great being so young in my career, fighting in my first pay-per-view and fighting with a guy like Garcia who brings over a different fanbase.” said Spence Jr. at his media day. ” said Spence.

WHERE IS THE RESPECT?

Errol Spence Jr was having a go of things in boxing not unlike Gennady Golovkin. Spence was beating up and stopping people, left and right, but without the praise universally. Spence has been avoided, not unlike Golovkin, who was avoided after being Gabriel Rosado until fighting Daniel Jacobs, Spence looked too good with too little money or fame to merit the risk for fighter making close to seven figures per fight. In fact, Spence offers a risk most fighter hate the most, the risk of looking foolish in the ring against him.

Other welterweights would rather fight each other than deal with Spence until they have to. The only one publicly interested in fighting Errol Spence Jr. is Terence Crawford, who is signed to a rival promoter, Top Rank Inc, who has an exclusive contract to ESPN, a rival network, making a fight unlikely until the money hits a point in which it has to be made.

The only reason I can see why people discredit Spence at times is his inactivity. Since 2016, Spence has only fought five times, and his last outing in June was a first-round knockout of Carlos Ocampo, the mandatory challenger for his IBF welterweight title, and after that bout he sat on the sidelines until his March 16th bout with Mikey Garcia. The only major difference between him and Golovkin is that Golovkin fought roughly four-times a year when he was at the height of his era.

It is odd though, as Spence has all the makings of being a star, homegrown world-champion, U.S. Olympian, and yet, some resist. 

Spence’s debut on pay-per-view will be interesting fight week experience as we haven’t seemingly had many big fight weeks with Errol Spence just yet, as the humble soft spoken fighter readies himself to try and push throw to be a star in the sport of boxing

“This is definitely one of those crossover fights for me. Garcia is the biggest name to date that I’m fighting on American soil. It’s just great being so young in my career, fighting in my first pay-per-view and fighting with a guy like Garcia who brings over a different fanbase”