What Should Be Next For Errol Spence JR

What Should Be Next For Errol Spence JR

By Sina Latif 

Ahead of their welterweight title pay-per-view bout, much of the talk was about the size difference between Errol Spence Jr and Mikey Garcia. In the end, this proved somewhat insignificant as the huge difference between the pair was in skill rather than size, as Spence outboxed Garcia with a clinical display behind his powerful jab.

On his PPV headlining debut at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in front of his home fans, Spence (25-0, 21 KOs) made the third defence of his IBF welterweight title with a commanding unanimous decision win in front of 47,525 fans.

Concerns before the fight regarding Spence were that if the 29-year-old blew Garcia out in a few rounds, everyone would say that he picked on the smaller man. However, such was the impressive nature of the victory, with Spence boxing perfectly all night, that the Dallas native’s case for being amongst the pound-for-pound best was bolstered considerably.

Garcia dared to be great and took a huge risk. It was a risk that didn’t pay off because along with the rest of the watching audience around the world, he learnt that Spence “is the truth, he’s for real”, as he acknowledged in the post-fight interview in the ring.

Many already believed that Spence was ‘the truth’. However after such a dominant display against a great boxer in Garcia, the true talent of Spence shone through.

The key question which is now posed for both guys is what’s next?

Garcia said in his post-fight interview that he ‘probably will come back down to the lighter divisions’, and rightly so. He got a taste of the higher echelons of the welterweight division and realised that it is no place for him.

For a fighter who is a four-division world champion and has had such a phenomenal career thus far, he would not be building on his legacy by beating B and C grade fighters at 147lbs. Those victories would lead to fights against the world champions at welterweight, none of whom would be a good idea for Garcia to be mixing it with based on Saturday night’s showing.

Although many will forget following this fight, at lightweight and super-lightweight, Garcia is still one of the p4p best in the world and options await him at the lower weights. Due to the fact that Vasily Lomachenko is with Top Rank and ESPN and Garcia is with PBC, much like the case with Spence and Terence Crawford, a unification fight for Garcia and Loma would prove difficult to make. Nevertheless, Garcia can still put his career back on the right track at the lower weights following the beatdown he received at the hands of Spence.

He has options, including WBC lightweight mandatory challenger and 2012 Olympic Gold medalist for Great Britain, Luke Campbell. However, all fans will hope that promotional issues can be resolved in order for Garcia and Loma to battle it out for lightweight supremacy. That is a mega-fight that we would all love to see.

With Spence, great fights await him at welterweight.

The welterweight division has an abundance of elite fighters with unification fights against WBO champion Terence Crawford, WBA champion Keith Thurman and WBC champion Shawn Porter all fascinating options.

Although everyone expect a showdown between Spence and Crawford to happen at some point, due to promotional issues, it cannot be foreseen for the near future. This is a shame, as it could be the biggest fight in world boxing.

With Thurman expected to ease his way back after a long lay-off with injuries and in no rush to jump in with the likes of ‘the truth’, this may be the perfect time for a unification fight with Porter.

Following Spence’s domination of Garcia, Porter said ‘just let me know when’. The WBC champ is presumably ready for a showdown with Spence, and there is no better time for a unification mega-fight between the pair, with no promotional restrictions.

Regarding Manny Pacquiao, Spence acknowledged following Saturday’s fight that he could give Pacquiao ‘that retirement cheque’. It’s easy to see why Spence and every other welterweight would love to fight Pacquiao, as he is an icon with an entire nation of loyal followers rooting for him, and would offer all of them their biggest payday. Not to mention that he is a 40-year-old nearing the end of his career and gives the young lions such as Spence the opportunity to get a legend’s name on their resume.

A Pacquiao-Spence showdown would most likely result in the Filipino legend’s final fight. An icon of the sport deserves to have a better goodbye than to be road-kill to build up the brand of a young fighter.

It will be interesting to see what the next move is for Garcia and Spence. One thing is for sure, both have options. Some options more lucrative than others. We shall wait and see what happens!

Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images