Errol Spence Plans to Make Good on Chance to Take a Giant Leap Toward Stardom
Errol Spence Jr. has a goal.
He wants to be the undisputed world welterweight champion, and he doesn't plan on waiting around too long before making his push for the throne recently occupied by all-time greats such as Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Spence faces once-beaten Leonard Bundu Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. ET in the headline bout of a Premier Boxing Champions card from the new Ford Amphitheater in Brooklyn, New York, at the iconic Coney Island, and he intends to make a statement to the crowded field atop the 147-pound mix.
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“I feel I'm side by side with those guys [the other top fighters at welterweight]. Especially after winning this fight and then winning my next fight and capturing a world title,” Spence told Bleacher Report.
“I'll be neck and neck with them, and hopefully I can fight guys like Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman or the winner of Jessie Vargas and Manny Pacquiao. There's a lot of great fighters at 147, and it's going to be interesting to see who comes out on top.”
Spence, a 2012 U.S. Olympian, graduated from top prospect to genuine contender with a one-sided thrashing of former 140-pound champion Chris Algieri this past April at the Barclays Center.
It was a fight that he was widely expected to win, but the speed and ferocity of his victory, coming against an opponent who had gone 12 rounds with power punchers Pacquiao and Ruslan Provodnikov, was an emphatic arrival on the top-level scene.
Even he was surprised by the ease with which he dispensed a former world champion who had faced world-class opposition and not folded.
It was a “coming-out fight,” in his words.
But that doesn't mean he didn't find things to improve on.
He felt he was a little reckless going in for the kill and needs to measure himself more and not get careless in the moment.
Bundu, who most American fight fans only know from a shutout decision loss to Keith Thurman in late 2014, is an awkward, tricky opponent who stands in the 26-year-old’s path to a mandatory shot at the IBF Welterweight Championship.
His loss to Thurman wasn't exactly pleasing television.
He was dropped in the opening frame and spent the next 11 rounds frustrating his foe in pure survival mode.
That presents a challenge for a fighter looking for a big performance in a big spot on national television, but Spence isn't concerned and doesn't want to underestimate his foe based on one fight.
“He’s [Bundu] had a lot of other fights where he was coming forward, boxing and moving. We live in a time where everything is on YouTube. I watched a lot of his fights other than the Keith Thurman fight,” Spence said.
“I had great sparring. I sparred with guys heavier, lighter, faster, stronger. I'm ready for anything he comes with.”
Spence used the exposure he received during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London to launch his professional career.
He was the victim (like far too many fighters, as we've seen this summer in Rio) of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and its dodgy scoring, but he got a reprieve when a truly ludicrous decision was reversed on appeal.
It didn't lead him to medal, but it provided him with the type of experience fighting in a high-pressure atmosphere—where any fight could be your last—that aided his transition to the pro ranks.
“Everything happens for a reason. I lost. I thought I won, but it was a great experience fighting on the biggest stage in the world,” Spence said.
“It got me ready for the pros and fighting on a big card like this one on NBC. I'm more prepared for it.”
It's a testament to the belief Spence’s handlers, led by boxing’s uber power broker Al Haymon, have in him to give him this big of a spotlight at this point in his career.
The PBC on NBC broadcast is scheduled to follow the gold-medal match of the 2016 Summer Olympics basketball tournament, which, particularly if the United States is playing as most expect, should draw in a large viewing audience.
That should equate to the type of huge mainstream exposure that most fighters (young or old) can only dream about. It's exactly what boxing's return to network TV is supposed to be all about.
Spence knows what he has standing in front of him, and he knows what he needs to do.
“This is a huge spot. During the Olympics, the gold-medal round for basketball. There’s going to be a lot of people watching,” Spence said.
“I just have to put on a great performance. This is my chance.”
Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites. All quotes were obtained firsthand.
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