Spence No Interest In Pacquiao Fight

DeSoto native and unified Welterweight world champ "The Truth" Errol Spence is regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, is one of the longest reigning world champions, and one of the sport's most lucrative stars. He was starting a potentially massive payday and mega-fight with former seven-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, which would likely be the biggest payday of his career. A fight that would certainly not go well for the 44-year-old legend. However, Spence expressed no interest in a fight with the Filipino Icon saying “I wouldn’t fight him. Larry Holmes is one of the greatest heavyweights. He doesn’t get respect. How he beat Muhammad Ali – he f***ed him up. I think it’s because of that.”

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A respectable decision from the north Texan. Spence was scheduled to face Pacquiao in August of last year when he was forced to pull out from the fight due to suffering a retinal detachment. The Texan was replaced by hard-hitting Cuban Yordenis Ugas. Ugas went in and outpointed Pacquiao to capture his version of the WBA welterweight strap in fairly dominant fashion. Ugas would meet up with Spence just eight months later. Spence would dominate the Cuban and capture his WBA strap in addition to defending his IBF and WBC versions.

A year and a half later and another brutal defeat for Pacquiao combined with being 44 years old would likely not bode well for the legend and Spence doesn't want to be known as the man that beat the former legend into permanent retirement. With the Pacquiao fight not going to happen, Spence continues to look for another opponent while recovering from another scary car accident. He had previously agreed to terms in principle to battle Terence Crawford. That fell through over financial concerns. Crawford chose to battle with David Avanesyan, a PPV event that is rumored to have sold a total of 5-15K PPV sales in the US. Crawford remains the main target for Spence however if that again falls through, rumors to face unbeaten contender Jaron "Boots' Ennis are also heating up. Ennis is currently ranked number one by the IBF and submitted a request to the IBF for them to order Errol Spence Jr to defend his IBF title. Spence would have to face him or risk losing his IBF title.

Spence to return home; takes on Ugas

The long-running rumor is indeed true. WBC & IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. and WBA kingpin Yordenis Ugas will unify three-quarters of the 147-pound gold in Spence's backyard, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, on April 16th. Spence hails from DeSoto in Dallas County. The unbeaten Spence,27-0 (21) confirmed the fight and location through his various social media accounts. Spence's last fought at AT&T Stadium was three-years-ago and unanimously outpointed Mikey Garcia in front of nearly 50,000 fans.

In the last three years, Spence has battled major outside the ring issues including a horrific car crash and a detached retina. He has fought just twice since that Garcia fight. He outpointed two former world champions in Shawn Porter and most recently Danny Garcia back in December of 2020.

Yordenis Ugas put the welterweight division and the boxing world on notice when he retired the legendary eight-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao, back in August. He was scheduled to fight on the undercard of Pacquiao-Spence, but when the Texan had to pull out of the fight due to the retina issue, Ugas stepped in and scored a career-changing 12 round unanimous decision. Ugas sports a 27-4 (12) record and has won four in a row since losing a controversial split decision to Shawn Porter back in 2019 including a win over Brownsville native Omar Figueroa a former world champion.

Spence has since recovered from the retina injury and was cleared to return to the boxing activity in late in 2021. He has had a full recovery. The 12-round, 147-pound unification bout will headline a four-fight pay-per-view event that either FOX or Showtime will air. Fight night is officially less than 10 weeks away.

Spence out of Pacquiao Fight with Detached Retina

The highly anticpated showdeon between IBF/WBC unified welterweight champ Errol "The Truth" Spence of Desoto, and legendary eight-divison world champ Manny Pacquiao is offically off. The Texan was forced to pull out with detached retina. A detached retina or retianl detachment is "an emergency situation in which a thin layer of tissue (the retina) at the back of the eye pulls away from its normal position. Retinal detachment separates the retinal cells from the layer of blood vessels that provides oxygen and nourishment. The longer retinal detachment goes untreated, the greater your risk of permanent vision loss in the affected eye." according to the Mayo Clinic. Typical recovery time is 2-4 weeks according to multiple medical sources. Spence, 31, said on Twitter that he has seen three different doctors and all have said the same thing.

The fight was scheduled for Saturday, August 21, at the T-Mobile Arena and is still going off. Spence we be replaced by WBA champion Yordenis Ugas. Ugas (26-4) is a quality replacement and has won three consecutive fights since a close and very controversial decision loss to Shawn Porter in 2019. He was upgraded from "Regular champ" to "Super Champ" due to the extreme inactivity of Manny Pacquiao or won the super designation from Keith Thurman in July of 2019 but has not fought since. Back in January Pacquiao was designated as "champion in recess" by the sanctioning body.

Spence, took to Twitter and said "I came back from worse" perhaps referring to a horrific car wreck he suffered back in the fall of 2019. Spence has fought just once since the accident a 12-round unanimous decision victory against former two-division world champ Danny Garcia. Pacquiao responded on Twitter saying " I pray for a full and complete recovery for @ErrolSpenceJr"