Errol Spence Jr. is Back, and His Priority Should Be Terence Crawford

Published

8 months ago

December 6, 2020

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Perhaps the most prescient point made by analyst Lennox Lewis during Saturday night’s pay-per-view telecast of unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.’s comeback victory over two-division former titlist Danny Garcia had nothing to do with either of the main event participants. But in a way, it did.

Now 55 and retired for these past 17½ years, Lewis, the two-time heavyweight champion and 2009 inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, still is in a snit that as a pro he never got a chance to reprise his stoppage of Riddick Bowe in their gold medal super heavyweight bout of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Nor is Lewis, who blames that glaringly blank space on his resume to Bowe and his manager, Rock Newman, alone in decrying a woulda, coulda, shoulda megafight that never advanced beyond the theoretical.

Lewis and his fellow commentators for the Premier Boxing Champions/Fox Sports PPV showdown at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, were in agreement that Spence, who had not fought since being involved in a potentially fatal car crash on October 10, 2019, if not completely back to his previous elite level, was at least mostly so.

“Errol Spence has been consistent, and persistent, with his punches,” Lewis correctly assessed after the unified IBF and WBC welterweight champion registered a clear-cut, unanimous decision over the well-regarded challenger.

“He just looked physically, mentally, like the same champion he was 15 months ago,” said Brian Kenny.

And this, from Joe Goossen: “Errol Spence has been a machine against a really, really good counterpuncher – a smart, high-IQ fighter in Danny Garcia. He’s really taken away all of his best tools from Garcia with his pressure, his relentlessness and his combination punching. Errol Spence is back.”

Ah, but back to what? Another conga line of expected victories against very good-to-excellent fighters, such as Garcia, Shawn Porter, Mikey Garcia, Lamont Peterson and Kell Brook? Or to the kind of Armageddon brawl for it all that happens all too seldom in boxing, where petty squabbles and an aversion to risk-taking can keep the most alluring of matchups forever on the drawing board?

In a very real sense, the most important figure for Spence’s ascertainment of proof that he is still the best (or maybe second best) 147-pound fighter on the planet is WBO welterweight king Terence “Bud” Crawford, the figurative Bowe to Spence’s Lewis, or maybe the other way around. A pairing of Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) and Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) could be an updated version of the early 1980s first clashes of Sugar Ray Leonard with Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran, which would be the kind of adrenaline jolt that the fight game periodically requires for maximum revitalization. It also could be a relative letdown, as was the case when Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad squared off in 1999 in a unification showdown that promised so much but delivered something less. But, hey, one never knows until the posturing ends and the punching begins.

With the possible exception of middleweight/super middleweight straddler Canelo Alvarez, a majority of the No. 1 designations atop those pound-for-pound lists everyone is so hot to put together go to Crawford, who obviously has ample support as the finest 147-pound fighter on the planet. Spence, on the other hand, was and is a top five P4P type who is rated as the division’s best by The Ring magazine, just ahead of Crawford. Along with a full unification heavyweight showdown of Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, Spence-Crawford is a guaranteed blockbuster that would harken back to that glorious heyday of the ’80s when certain fight nights captivated global interest.

The primary roadblock thus far to getting Spence and Crawford inside the ropes together has been the intransigence of Top Rank founder Bob Arum, who is aligned with ESPN and holds paper on Crawford, and Al Haymon, under whose PBC banner Spence toils. But the growing rift between Arum and Crawford suggests movement toward some sort of resolution.

Following Crawford’s relatively routine dismissal of Kell Brook via fourth-round TKO on November 14 in the Bubble at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand, Arum ripped into his fighter with words that stung Crawford more than Brooks’ punches had.

“He’s got to promote like (Teofimo) Lopez does,” Arum, whose contract with Crawford extends for two more bouts. “He’s got to promote like Shakur (Stevenson) does. Like (Floyd) Mayweather did. Like (Manny) Pacquiao did. If he doesn’t, who the f— needs him? He may be the greatest fighter in the word, but, hey, I ain’t going bankrupt promoting him … I’m no longer in the business of losing money on Terence Crawford.”

A miffed Crawford fired back at Arum, saying, “If he feels that way, he can release me now. You don’t have to wait until after a Spence fight. Release me now and you don’t have to lose any money if I am such a loss, a headache.”

Spence had too much respect for the gallant but not-quite-good-enough Garcia (36-3, 21 KOs) to ruminate about the 800-pound elephant in AT&T Stadium, namely the continuing specter of Crawford. The native of DeSoto, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, recently purchased a ranch and Spence figures he owes himself another half-year-or-so break from the ring wars so that he can mosey on over to his new spread and tend to his livestock.

“Be patient with me,” he advised fans during a post-fight interview. “I had to shake off a few cobwebs. This was a comeback fight for me, but I’ll definitely be 120% come my next fight.

“I’m gonna chill on my ranch. I have a couple of horses. I’m gonna get some more horses, get some chickens, some more cows. I need to rest a little bit.”

The bickering between Arum and Crawford aside, the likelihood is that Crawford is too valuable a TR asset to simply be cut loose before the end of his servitude. If Spence-Crawford is to happen, it may be 2022 or even later, if at all. Considering that Crawford is now 33 and Spence 30, indefinitely keeping something that seems so inevitable on the back burner could carry it past its optimal expiration date or, worse, into the perpetual limbo into which Lewis-Bowe (or Bowe-Mike Tyson, for that matter) was consigned. That would not only be a disservice to fight fans, but a dark spot on the legacies of Hall of Fame-quality fighters who should loudly demand that they settle, once and for all, who really is the contemporary king of the welterweight hill.

There is a familiar proverb, “He who hesitates is lost,” generally attributed to 18^th century British essayist and poet Joseph Addison. It seems as true now as it did three centuries ago.

Photo credit: Frank Micelotta / FOX Sports

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Errol Spence Jr. Returns to the Ring and Defeats Danny Garcia

Late Sub Jonnie Rice Bursts Michael Coffie’s Bubble on a PBC Card in Newark

Published

2 days ago

July 31, 2021

Arne K. Lang

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Every thing that could go wrong went wrong as promoter Al Haymon and his associates were patching together tonight’s card at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. But it couldn’t have worked out better for journeyman heavyweight Jonnie Rice who turned his career around with a smashing TKO of heavily favored and previously undefeated Michael Coffie.

Positive Covid tests scuttled two 10-round fights on the undercard. The main event had already been disheveled when Coffie’s original opponent Gerald Washington flunked his Covid test. Enter Rice (pictured on the right) who was on standby and seized the moment.

Rice, a Columbia, South Carolina native who has been living and training in Las Vegas, came in sporting a 13-6-1 record but five of his wins had come against no-hopers in Tijuana and he had yet to defeat an opponent in a match where he was the “B” side. But these facts were misleading as five of his six losses had come against hot prospects with undefeated records and he had honed his craft sparring against the likes of Tyson Fury, Filip Hrgovic, and Michael Hunter.

Based on “strength of schedule,” Rice, 34, had the edge over Coffie, the 35-year-old ex-Marine who brought a 12-0 record but was relatively untested. And Rice, who started fast, took the fight to Coffie and out-landed him. Coffie’s left eye was swelling and he wasn’t firing back when the referee waived it off in the fifth round.

Dirrell-Brooker

Tonight’s PBC fare came in two helpings with appetizers and the main event on FOX preceding a club-level show on FOX’s affiliate FS1. The main event of the nightcap was a 10-round light heavyweight bout between Andre Dirrell and Christopher Brooker.

Dirrell, who previously held an interim version of the IBF 168-pound world title, looked very sharp coming off a 19-month layoff, scoring three knockdowns before the fight was waived off in the third round. The Flint, Michigan native improved to 28-3 (18). Philadelphia’s Brooker fell to 16-8.

Junior middleweight Joey Spencer (13-0, 9 KOs) scored an 8-round unanimous decision over James Martin (7-3). Spencer won comfortably on the scorecards – 80-72 and 79-73 twice – but was unimpressive.

Local fan favorite Vito “White Magic” Mielnicki Jr (9-1, 5 KOs) rebounded from his first pro loss with an impressive second-round stoppage of Noah Kidd (6-4-2).

Philadelphia welterweight Karl Dargan (20-1, 9 KOs), a former two-time national amateur champion, returned to the ring after a long absence and stopped LA’s Ivan Delgado (13-4-2) in the third round.

New Jersey heavyweight Norman Neely advanced to 9-0 (7) with a unanimous decision over rugged Texas brawler Juan Torres (6-4-1). Neely won all six rounds on all three cards.

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Leigh Wood’s Big Upset Spangles the Rebirth of Eddie Hearn’s Garden Party

Published

2 days ago

July 31, 2021

Arne K. Lang

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Last summer, hamstrung by the pandemic, Eddie Hearn hit upon the idea of holding boxing events outdoors in the expansive backyard of the family estate on the outskirts of London (now Matchroom Sport headquarters) where he grew up. Four shows were staged there.

The series has been revived. Today was “episode 1” of Season Two of Matchroom Fight Camp, otherwise known as Eddie Hearn’s Garden Party. Two more shows are penciled in over the next two weekends.

The match-up getting the most buzz was the welterweight contest between fast-rising Conor Benn and battle-tested Adrian Granados. Unfortunately, Benn tested positive for Covid-19. But the main event, a WBA world featherweight title defense by Can Xu (aka Xu Can) against Nottingham’s Leigh Wood stayed intact and produced a memorable upset.

Xu, who is co-promoted by Oscar De La Hoya, was installed a 4/1 favorite. Although he wasn’t a big puncher with only three knockouts to his credit in 20 starts, he rode into Hearn’s backyard riding a 15-fight winning streak for the third defense of his WBA “regular” title. But he started slow, perhaps the result of ring rust — it was his first fight of 2021 after missing all of 2020 – and he never did crank up the volume that had carried him to victory in his three title fights.

Wood, a stablemate of Josh Taylor who has made great gains since hooking up with Ben Davison and Lee Wylie, landed the heavier punches and was ahead on the cards when he took the fight out of the judges’ hands in the final minute of the final round. He decked Xu with a hard right hand and then trapped him on the ropes, forcing the stoppage that came with only 17 seconds remaining.

The 32-year-old Wood improved to 25-2 (15). Xu falls to 18-3. The deposed champion has a rematch clause so we may have a sequel.

Other Bouts

Chris Billam-Smith, trained by Shane McGuigan, won a hard-fought 12-round split decision over Belfast’s Tommy McCarthy in a cruiserweight scrap with three domestic titles at stake. The judges had it 116-112 and 115-114 for Billam-Smith, now 13-1, with the dissenter favoring McCarthy (18-3) by a 115-114 tally.

McCarthy wobbled Billam-Smith late in the first round with on overhand right, but could never land his Sunday punch on the Bournemouth fighter in a see-saw struggle with many close rounds. There were no knockdowns but McCarthy suffered a cut over his right eye near the end of round six from an apparent head butt.

McCarthy had Carl Frampton helping out in his corner which infused the contest with the aura of a grudge match. Frampton was the best man at Shane McGuigan’s wedding, but their friendship dissolved in a bitter court fight. At the end of the grueling fight, Billam-Smith and McCarthy embraced in a show of mutual respect.

Liverpool super-welterweight Anthony Fowler whose lone setback came at the hands of Scott Fitzgerald (a split decision) won his sixth straight with an eighth-round stoppage of Germany’s Rico Mueller whose cornerman was on the ring apron when the slow-acting referee waived it off at the 2:12 mark. Fowler, who is also trained by Shane McGuigan, improved to 15-1 (11). His next bout is expected to come against fellow Scouser Liam Smith in October. This was the second fight this month for the game but out-gunned 33-year-old Mueller (28-4-1) who was subbing for veteran Tex-Mex campaigner Roberto Garcia who pulled out with a back injury.

Also, Jack Cullen (20-2-1, 9 KOs) scored a 10-round unanimous decision over Avni Yildirim (21-4) in a 10-round super middleweight contest. Yildirim, from Turkey, was looking to atone for his hollow performance against Canelo Alvarez this past February. While he had his moments, he was out-worked by the lanky Lancashire man who won by scores of 100-90, 08-92, and 97-93.

Photo credit: Alan Walton / Matchroom Boxing

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Avila Perspective, Chap 146: De La Hoya Returns Plus Other Boxing Notes

Published

3 days ago

July 30, 2021

David A. Avila

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Sitting in front of several dozen reporters, the favorite son of Los Angeles area boxing, Oscar De La Hoya, and former MMA champion Vitor Belfort spoke about their mutual return to prizefighting.

“I can’t lie. I miss getting hit,” said De La Hoya.

It was a statement also shared by Belfort.

After years away from the prize ring, both return to exchange hits as boxing’s De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) meets MMA’s Belfort (26-14, 18 KOs) on Sept. 11, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Triller Fight Club card will be shown on pay-per-view via FITE.tv and other modes.

De La Hoya, 48, last absorbed hits from a fighter when Manny Pacquiao battered him almost 13 years ago back in December 2008. It was a shock to the senses to see the great East L.A. fighter take blow after blow while unable to hit back.

He was only 35.

Many attribute that loss to a ridiculous agreement to weigh under 145 pounds before facing Pacquiao. At the time De La Hoya was the real gate attraction and pay-per-view king. He held all the cards but agreed to the demands acutely devised by Freddie Roach. It proved to leave De La Hoya too weak to fight back and after eight rounds the one-sided beating was stopped.

De La Hoya retired after that fight. Ironically, he called for a press conference and it was held right where he recently announced this upcoming fight against Belfort. It’s also near a statue built in his honor.

Sitting nearby, Belfort patiently waited his turn to speak. For the Brazilian MMA fighter, it’s only been a mere three years since he exchanged blows in a prize fight. It was a knockout loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 224 in Brazil.

When Belfort spoke to the media, he expressed a desire to get hit too.

“Its fun. I’m going to have joy when I get hit. You cannot get better than that,” said Belfort.

It’s a common sentiment held by former greats. I’ve heard the same comments from James “Lights Out” Toney who ridiculously was not voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this past year.

Getting hit becomes as common as breathing for most professional fighters, especially those that began boxing at a young age such as De La Hoya.

“The truth is I miss it. I miss it very much,” said De La Hoya who began lacing up gloves as an amateur at five years old.

According to oddsmakers, Belfort is the favorite to win. Probably for a number of reasons including he fought a mere three years ago. Belfort is the heavier fighter and has fought foes in the 205 pound-division called light heavyweight in MMA. Plus, he is simply bigger than his foe.

“I hope I don’t end up killing him, but everything is on the table,” said Belfort. “If he doesn’t have joy in what he does he could come back in a coffin.”

Prizefighters are masochists. All truly good fighters have a streak of masochism inside. They know they’ll be pummeled with blows that truly hurt and they look forward to it. But the bitter truth is taking hits in your 30s and taking hits near your 50s are two vastly different scenarios.

It’s an extremely dangerous fight for both.

As someone who spent nearly a month in a hospital after experiencing a cerebral hemorrhage, otherwise known as a “brain bleed,” I’m stunned by the fact that more boxers are not damaged from brutal blows. I pray nothing like this occurs to De La Hoya, Belfort, or any retired boxer who returns to the prize ring for a possible payday.

They are prizefighters and like any former high-performance athlete, they miss competition.

“When you love it, no matter what happens, I’m ok with it,” said De La Hoya.

Fans will attend Staples Center by the thousands simply to see “the Golden Boy” once again and pay tribute to one of the greats. Many of those attending will be praying silently for the fighter’s safety.

I know I will.

England Fights

WBA featherweight titlist Xu Can (18-2, 3 KOs) defends against Leigh Wood (24-2, 14 KOs) on Saturday July 31, at Brentwood, England. DAZN will stream the world title fight.

This is the third defense for Can who has not fought in almost two years. The last defense was at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California when he soundly defeated Manny Robles III.

Can took the title from Puerto Rico’s Jesus Rojas, a rough and tumble fighter who takes a pound of flesh from everyone he faces. Against Can he was unable to deal out the usual punishment.

Wood is a former super bantamweight contender who has never really faced international competition. He did face former world champion Gavin McDonnell but was stopped. Perhaps the move up in weight will help.

Fights to Watch

Fri. Estrella TV 7 p.m. Erick Leon (14-1) vs Juan Marcos Rodriguez (10-3).

Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Xu Can (18-2) vs Leigh Wood (24-2).

Sat. FOX 5 p.m. Michael Coffie (12-0) vs. Jonnie Rice (13-6-1)

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