Errol Spence Jr is rumored to be one of Canelo Alvarez’s three opponents that he’ll be fighting as part of his newly signed three-fight contract with Premier Boxing Champions [PBC].
Spence has the size to compete with Canelo, as he walks around at 180 lbs. He wouldn’t need to lose nearly as much weight as he normally does in draining down to fight at 147.
Canelo-Spence would be a massive stadium-level fight in Arlington, Texas, and it would bring in tons of PPV buys as well. While it wouldn’t be as big a fight as Canelo vs. David Benavidez, it would still do quite well.
To get the chance at sharing the ring with the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs), Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) will need to come out victorious in two fights with Terence Crawford in their undisputed welterweight championship this year.
Fans have talked about wanting to see Errol and Canelo battle since the Mexican star was fighting in the 160-lb division. It’s surprising that it didn’t happen years ago, but with Canelo busy with his fights against Gennadiy Golovkin, it got in the way.
“I have thought for years that at some point, you might see an Errol Spence vs. Canelo fight,” said Dan Rafael to Boxing Social. “When it first dawned on me was when Errol was doing his damage at welterweight, where he still is, and Canelo was still fighting in the middleweight division, and I’m like, ‘That’s going to be a big fight.'”
It’s too bad that Canelo moved up to 168 without fighting Spence because the Mexican star has fought a lot of lackluster fighters at super middleweight since 2018, which has arguably hurt his popularity.
Canelo would have been far better off if he’d fought Spence three times rather than wasting his time with this lackluster bunch:
– Rocky Fielding
– Billy Joe Saunders
– Avni Yildirim
– Callum Smith
– Daniel Jacobs
– John Ryder
– Sergey Kovalev
– Caleb Plant
Spence needs to move up to 154 or better yet, 160 after he finishes his two fights with Crawford this year. Canelo would be ideal for Spence to fight in the first quarter of 2024.
Given that Spence is close friends with the undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo, it’s pointless for him to move to 154. Errol needs to take the fight with Canelo at 168, and then drop down to 160 if he’s more comfortable at that weight.
“They could draw a massive crowd, certainly in Vegas but in a place like a stadium in Arlington, Texas,” said Rafael. “Errol is from the Dallas area. Canelo obviously has a huge Mexican fan base, and subsequent to my initial thought about that, he put what 75,000+ or whatever it was for the Billy Joe Saunders fight in that building.
“You do Errol Spence, you’re going to draw an even bigger crowd than that because of his local ties and all that. So yeah, I guess that’s possible. Errol Spence got a lot of other things to worry about before the potential of a Canelo fight.
“He’s got to deal with a man named Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford coming up in July, and then whatever happens in that fight, a good chance that there’ll be a rematch because of the deal they day signed.
“So the other fights for Canelo are pretty obvious. You’ve got [Jermall] Charlo, which will be the fight that takes place in September, or I’ve also heard maybe if they can’t work it out for September, maybe it goes into October.
“But whatever. The fall fight for Canelo is Charlo, and then you’ve got Andrade, Morrell, and Benavidez, who are all excellent fighters, all undefeated, all have had different types of titles, and are good fighters, and those are seemingly the guys,” said Rafael.