By Sean Nam
January 1, 2023
Source: Boxing Scene
Photo Source: Boxing Scene
Don’t expect to see Errol Spence Jr. mix it up with a stiff inside the ring anytime soon.
The WBA, WBC, IBF 147-pound champion from Desoto, Texas, recently offered an encouraging personal manifesto of sorts as it relates to his fighting philosophy—and apparently it does not involve tomato cans, ham-and-eggers, walkovers, and stumblebums.
“I don’t believe in tune-ups,” Spence told ES News. “Naw I’m sayin’? They’re not with my pedigree, fighting someone I know I’m supposed to be and I know it’s a showcase fight. I’m still gonna train hard but I’m not gonna train as hard if I’m fighting a top dude with a name you know what I’m sayin’?
“And I feel like the fans deserve it too. They don’t want to see me fight a bum dude or a showcase fight. They wanna see me fight the best of the business.”
Spence’s comments arrive after the disappointing fallout with WBO titlist Terence Crawford, of Omaha, Nebraska. The two fighters, regarded as two of the top talents in the sport, were originally headed for a showdown late this year, but talks eventually unravelled and they went their separate paths.
Crawford instead chose to get in the ring with British-based Russian contender David Avanesyan, eventually stopping him in six rounds at CHI Health Center in Crawford's hometown of Omaha.
It is not clear whom Crawford will face next in the first half of the new year. His fight with Avanesyan was promoted by new outfit BLK Prime but their deal was for one fight. Crawford praised BLK Prime in a recent tweet. Crawford said his purse for Avanesyan was $10 million.
As for Spence, it is widely expected that he will fight Keith Thurman, his Premier Boxing Champions stablemate, but the date for Spence’s next fight got pushed back after he was involved in a car accident.
His injuries, he said, are minor but they were enough to delay the announcement of his spring fight. Spence recently said he now expects to return to the ring anywhere between April and June.
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