Larry Merchant: Spence Should Look Upward to Canelo

Retired HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant, like a lot of people, took a keen interest in IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.’s dismantling of Mikey Garcia, whose decision to move up two weight classes and take on the naturally larger man proved to be ill-advised.

But that doesn’t mean that Spence, for whom Merchant has a burgeoning admiration, can’t succeed where Garcia didn’t. To hear Merchant tell it, the matchup all fans should demand, if not now then sometime in the not-too-distant future, is a bulked-up Spence against WBC/WBA middleweight titlist Canelo Alvarez.

What about Spence (25-0, 21 KOs) in a unification showdown with WBO welterweight champ Terence Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs), the most appealing pairing that can be made at 147 pounds? Both fighters are in the pound-for-pound discussion and it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the oddsmakers made the bout a pick ’em proposition when – if – it happens. Shouldn’t that fight be atop everyone’s wish list for both men? And if more marination is required, shouldn’t these terrific champions make full unification of their present division a priority?

Well, yes. Probably. But Merchant, 88, believes the 5-foot-9½ Spence doesn’t need some sort of tournament to establish himself as the true king of the welters, even if Crawford is lurking on the horizon. He also thinks it is inevitable that Spence’s body will fill out to a point where it eventually will be necessary that he look upward, to middleweight, and the Mexican superstar who would present him with the sternest possible test, as well as the most intriguing and profitable.

“To me, it’s a natural progression,” said Merchant, who thinks Spence would “wreck” not only anyone he might face at welterweight, but also at super welterweight. “To me, the biggest fight that can be made at some point is Spence and Canelo. Virtually all the great welterweights eventually moved up to middleweight, which is a more glamorous division. That’s what great fighters did back in the day, whether it was looking for better competition or for bigger paydays.

“I think it’s fair to say Oscar De La Hoya went up too far when he fought Bernard Hopkins, but he took the shot. Carmen Basilio went up to middleweight to fight Sugar Ray Robinson. I covered both of their fights.

“There are many other examples. Emile Griffith fought many good middleweights, including Carlos Monzon twice and Dick Tiger. But that was a time when you could lose a fight and nobody would think you’re damaged goods. You could still come back. There’s a different economic model now. Everybody says they want big events, but they’re more impressed by unbeaten records and so forth.”

It should be noted that Spence has had 13 bouts at 147-plus pounds, and was a career-high 156½ pounds, for all intents and purposes a middleweight, when he stopped Chris van Heerden in eight rounds on Sept. 11, 2015. Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs), on the other hand, is 5-foot-8 and has a 70½-inch reach, an inch and a half less than Spence. He also turned pro at 139 pounds and had 21 fights at 147 pounds or less before he won his first world title, as a super welterweight.

“Canelo is not a big middleweight,” Merchant said. “If Spence does move up, he might want to test his strength at super welterweight, which would put him in a good spot to get a fight with Canelo.”

In addition to the examples cited by Merchant, other welterweights who moved up to middleweight for dare-to-be-great (or greater) fights were Sugar Ray Leonard against Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Jose Napoles against Monzon, Amir Khan against Alvarez and Marlon Starling against Michael Nunn.

“Maybe it’s just me, but I think Spence (who’s 29) and Canelo (28) could be a gigantic fight someday,” Merchant said. “But don’t wait too long to make it.”

What say you, TSS Nation?

Bernard Fernandez is the retired boxing writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. He is a five-term former president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, an inductee into the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Atlantic City Boxing Halls of Fame and the recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism and the Barney Nagler Award for Long and Meritorious Service to Boxing.

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