Welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr and Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia have agreed for a fight in November on FOX pay-per-view. According to Mike Coppinger, IBF/WBC 147-pound champion Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) and former two-division world champion Garcia 36-2, 21 KOs) are “tentatively set November.”
There still isn’t a specific date for November, and the month could change with the pandemic potentially getting in the way of the Spence-Garcia fight.
Is Spence still the same fighter?
It’ll be interesting to see how well the 30-year-old Spence performs against Garcia, as this is the first fight back for Errol since his terrible car crash on October 10 in Dallas, Texas.
There’s a lot of question marks about whether Spence is the same fighter or not. In the car crash, Spence lost teeth when he was ejected from his Ferrari Spider. He spent close to a week in the ICU afterward, and his face looked swollen for months later.
It took Spence awhile to start sounding normal again with many boxing fans noting that he was slurring.
It’s brave on Spence’s part to take on dangerous puncher like Danny Garcia in his first fight back, seeing that he’s capable of doing damage. Danny is on the same level as former Spence opponent Kell Brook power-wise, and he’s not to be taken lightly.
If something goes wrong for Spence against Danny, he’s going to be second-guessed by fans for taking such a risky fight in his first match back since the car crash.
It would be a good idea for Spence not to slug it out with Garcia the same way he did in his last fight against Porter. Danny is a bigger puncher than Porter, and he can do a lot more damage if he’s able to connect with his massive left hook throughout the contest.
Garcia can give Spence problems
If there’s something wrong with Spence’s head from the car crash, Garcia has got the power to expose that. In a worst-case scenario, this could be the beginning of the end for Errol.
Spence last fought in September, beating WBC 147lb champion Shawn Porter by a 12 round split decision. That was a fight in which Spence chose to slug with Porter at close range rather than boxing him at a distance the way that Kell Brook and Keith Thurman had both done to defeat him.
For whatever reason, Spence chose to do it the hard way, and in the end, he was the better fighter but not by a lot.
Garcia, 32, has lost two out of his last five fights since 2017 in defeats against Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter. It’s apparent to everything that Danny isn’t the same fighter at 147 as he was when he fought at 140. The boxers are more talented at 147, and Garcia’s power doesn’t go as far as it did at light-welterweight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSDysAQP124&t=16s
It’s understandable why Danny has chosen to stay at 147 rather than move back down to 140. The paydays are better at welterweight for Garcia, and he’d also have a difficult time making weight at 140 at this point in his career.