Topic: Boxing: Errol Spence vs Keith Thurman - page 30. (Read 7310 times)

If both are willing to fight, then we can be the judge on who is the best fighter in the division, unfortunately, it seems like they are avoiding each other because they want to retain their undefeated record and just choose to fight boxers that are not on their level. It's not fun anymore, if only there was a rule that they are mandated to fight each other, then it will benefit the fans as we will see one of the best fights in boxing.

The only way to declare him as the best in this division is if he can beat Crawford. It's his biggest rival and probably his biggest fear too because it seems like he is not willing to give a chance for this big fight to happen. Instead of getting into an undisputed fight, he chooses a challenger which is Thurman.

Definitely we wanted to see Spence tested himself against a young and upcoming Ennis because that's what the fans wants for sure. However, as you have said, Boots could be a dangerous fight for him because although he might not have the experience yet, but he is touted to be the next great boxer that will take the division, so yes, very huge risk for Spence.

So he might go with Thurman here, I think it will be good to include Thurman in his resume as well. He has a lot already, Danny Garcia, Ugas, Porter, and if he can add Thurman in his resume, it looks like he has clean the division not name Crawford.

So, Errol Spence have now spoken about his future fight, although he's still not disclosing his current condition but it seems to me that he's already fine because his camp is now busy discussing about this matter. Anyway, the twist is that he will announce it soon who will he face this April 2023.

Newest update:
https://www.boxingnews24.com/2022/12/errol-spence-fighting-in-april-against-tba/

What's your take about this guys? Should Spence secure the bout with Thurman or should he go directly to Ennis where there's a much higher risk because Boots is already regarded as one of the best boxers in the welterweight now and been touted as the upgraded version of Crawford.

Yes, I know it's already scheduled and it's a mandatory fight too but the fight is not yet inked and a schedule as well as the place where the fight would be held is not yet fixed. I don't have any doubts whether Spence can't truly defeat Thurman or not, my take is that he should be sharing some information about his condition and if legs is really severe, so that the people especially his fans will understand the situation and avoid misunderstanding his condition. What he is playing right now is giving him a bad image to the public.

^^ I guess as for Ennis, it's a high risk low reward for PBC, and it by chance Ennis upset Spence, it might be over for their cash cow. And what you picture really says how Al Haymon become so powerful in the boxing world, he is pulling this kind of stunt, we all hate Bob Arum, but if we look at how Al runs his PBC with iron hand, you might say that Arum is just small compare to how powerful PBC is. Hint, you might not find him around in any fights that he promotes and probably majority of us here haven't seen Al Haymon's face for real.

Jarron Ennis already flattened Custio Clayton earlier this year. This is the main reason why Boots is telling the IBF to man up and issue a mandatory on Spence since he already won the eliminator to get a crack at the IBF belt. It seems the IBF is quiet on Boots' concern.

My thought is that Al Haymon and PBC are only willing to risk their big stars if they saw something to exploit or if their fighters are heavy favorites against the other networks' fighters. Spence is good but Bud's skills and ring IQ are at a different level that allowed him to conquer 3 divisions and was even a former undisputed himself before moving up to the weight where Spence is campaigning. Even boxing people and earlier sports betting odds are favoring Bud to win. So Arum won't even get a chance to sit down with Haymon for a Bud-Spence proposal. It will be the same scenario that happened before when Bob seemed on a rampage after not receiving nor hearing any replies from PBC on this match-up.

The only big star that PBC risked against other networks was when they challenged a comebacking and out-of-shape Tyson Fury who just returned after a long lay-off and personal problems. It didn't end well for PBC. The next risk they agreed to deal with was Tank against the unproven Ryan Garcia though this might not happen after the former seems to be in prison already. The 2 cases obviously showed PBC tried to exploit someone outside their network. Why would Wilder enter the ring and directly challenged Fury who clearly needed tune-ups. Why not do it on AJ which would be the perfect match at that time. AJ who's holding 3 belts means the winner becomes the first ever undisputed in a 4 belt era. Ryan Garcia is another case who's not even a world champion. Tank and PBC should've challenged Haney who's holding all the belts at lightweight.

Well the source is the father of Ennis himself, so we shall see, -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBKPyhrYYSc

But there is also another interesting breakthough, as it was reported that IBF ordered Ennis vs Clayton for the title eliminator, winner facing Spence as mandatory for his IBF belt,



https://twitter.com/michaelbensonn/status/1493685546392055811?lang=en


True, he has no longer inside track of anything that Bud do moving forward so I wouldn't trust his words. But he might be right when he said that it's difficult to make arrangements with PBC without any promoter.

He said that if he will still be handling Crawford though, he will sit down with Al Haymon and try to settle down all the nitty gritty of this mega fight like what he did on Manny vs Floyd. In any case, it's foregone conclusion already, the fight is not happening for this year. Spence will have to look for Thurman or anyone that PBC will thrown on him.

The fans are just waiting for some announcement to come out. But until now, there's no update that's circling around.

It's the only thing that everyone is waiting for. And if there are some people that would make fake news out of it, still better to verify before believing that they do exist.

Nothing that we can do since Spence camp still quite regarding to any update though it is a mandatory fight we will expect them to bring updates. We might here something in thier social media channels or the organization will give details or any updates once there's a negotiation that already taking place.

Fans are really interested to see how Spence will defend his belt and how Thurman will push his way to bring the title back.

Wow! Is it really true that Spence is given 120 days to face Ennis? I cannot see any news about it. I tried to search and I noticed Ennis' fight next month is for the IBF interim belt. The IBF seldom sanctions an interim fight because it is actually a fake or garbage belt but maybe they are putting into consideration the injury of Spence. Personally, I do not think Spence will fight these young upcoming fighters like Ortiz and Ennis.

As for Bob Arum's words. He knows nothing since he is not anymore connected with Bud. Unless they are friends again and Bud will sign a new contract with Top Rank. But Bud at TR and with ESPN will further diminish the chances of a Spence fight who's residing with PBC and his fights televised by Showtime/Fox. I actually just wanted to see Bud moving up in weight a try to become a 4 division champion.

Bob Arum made an interesting comment a few days back. He was saying that there is still a possibility of a fight happening sometime in 2023 between Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford. In case, by some chance that happens, then I don't think that we will get a fight between Spence and Thurman. Also, Spence has been given 120 days to fight Jaron Ennis in welterweight division. Ennis is undefeated so far in professional boxing and in case Spence takes up this challenge, then it will be much more interesting in my opinion.

I don't think they need to "force" it, both are under PBC so the fight is easier to be made, probably just contention on the money, but then again since they are one umbrella, for sure they can settle this issues with Al Haymon's grace, hehehe.

But yeah, we shall hear when is the official announcement of the fight. Maybe they are waiting for next year because telling the public. I'm seeing that Spence wanted this fight, because it's going to be a big challenge for him. And he and his team always mentioned that they have cemented their legacy, but for me Spence competition is not that great, he still needs more name in his resume and this include the former champion in One Time Thurman.

We'll have to wait for that.

If that's going to force him into fight for Thurman then that's a better deal for both camps. They have to be forced so that this match should happen for real.

Thanks for that, there's still a need to lurk for me for some updates that relates to this because of what you've said.

I believe the scheduled fight between Thurman and Spence is a mandatory title defense fight so I think the fight will materialize.  Maybe it will be moved or delayed because of the recent accident of Spence and needs to recuparate and be in 100% condition.

Still, I think Spence will beat Thurman if Thurman failed to strengthen his lower body resistance to blows.  It is the weakness of Thurman I see so far.


Since there is no news or update for the upcoming possible fight with Spence, I believe the ordered defense will commence.  We will hear another news if Spence decided to cancel his fight against Thurman and since there is none, I think the ordered defense title fight against Thurman is still in effect.

Well, still hoping for some shed of light on this match to materialized. But if not, then there will be some other matches that will happen to Spence.

Who knows if they're just keeping silent for a reason this time? I'm giving the benefit of the doubt and hopeful that it will happen but if not, then that's it.

I understand your frustrations, I'd say that let's just get ourselves used to the new climate that boxing has to offer in this era. It is not just you, all avid boxing fans do know who should be fighting who but as I said, this new climate has some stronger ties to the governing bodies, that is why there's some favorites and some are getting favors to maintain their status while avoiding such risky fights.

But for Thurman, many believed that he still got some shot left in his career even after his inactivity. His recent fight shows that he can still deliver powerful punches that might give Spence some struggle. Thurman's only loss is not that big of a deal and I reckon that he could've defeat Pacquiao if he wasn't knocked down at the early rounds, even the scores shows that the match was so close.

I'm okay with this match-up because if ever Thurman wins, then that means that we will have a champion that won't avoid future fights and Crawford will have his chance to cement his legacy after a long time and the mandatory fighters will also get their chance as well. These days, whether we like it or not, Al Haymon controls the welterweight and super-welterweight division.

Same here, Spence's camp has been silent ever since his supposed fight against Crawford didn't materialized. I guess they have nothing to say anymore especially after the latter's revelation after they let Crawford hope for nothing. Now, I'm quite afraid that the same scenario will happen because now Spence has his own reasons why the fight should be delayed and might use his legs as a reason. Hopefully I'm wrong, this fight should take place next year without any delays.

But isn't it Thurman is his mandatory challenger? I think it should happen first before we start talking about his possible opponents. Thurman ain't an easy opponent, although he wasn't so active his comeback win was already enough to send a statement that he is still here to give his opponent a decent challenge.

I would love to see Spence taking on Jaron Ennis or Eimantas Stanionis, but I don't think business wise, it will be a good idea for PBC. Yes, Thurman has been inactive for the last couple of years, losing to Manny and then defeating a overblown 140 lbs in Barrios and he didn't look good at all in that fight. But as we have said already, boxing is a business now, and then don't want to put a big risk on Spence, specially a young and upcoming fighter like Ennis, who is making a name for himself by knocking out his opponents. They want to protect Spence at all cost, as he is one of the cash cow of PBC.