This doesn?t bode well for the likelihood of seeing Spence in a real, career-defining fight against one of the fellow welterweight elite any time soon?
Imagine a world without Errol Spence Jr. It?s easy if you try.
Saturday night, after Danny Garcia stopped Brandon Rios, three of the top four active welterweights in the world engaged in a round robin tournament of trash talk and calling each other out.
First, Shawn Porter stormed the ring and invaded Garcia?s Showtime post-fight interview in pursuit of next dibs. After some back-and-forth gibberish and posturing and the assurance that ?Philly?don?t back down from nobody,? order was restored.
A few minutes later, though, Porter and Keith Thurman would get into a heated exchange behind the scenes (and captured by FightHype.com) over when Thurman would be ready to honor his WBC-mandated return bout against Porter.
In the span of just about thirty minutes, Garcia called out Thurman, Porter called out Garcia, Porter called out Thurman, and Thurman agreed that, after a tune-up, he?d be ready for either Porter or Garcia.
But nobody said a word about Spence.
Garcia, Porter, and Thurman are all clients of Haymon Boxing, just like Spence. They have no conflicting network deals to hamper Spence talks and nothing standing in the way of making a run at the IBF champ. There?s also plenty of money to be had in a bout with the fan favorite rising star.
Yet, not a word.
If it weren?t for a fan accosting Thurman in the lobby of the Mandalay Bay that evening with a ?Stop ducking Errol? taunt (captured on video by Dontae?s Boxing Nation), Spence?s name would not have been brought up the entire evening.
This doesn?t bode well for the likelihood of seeing Spence in a real, career-defining fight against one of the fellow welterweight elite any time soon. Given Thurman?s slow return from injury and his apparent preference to entertain WBC-mandated retread bouts with Thurman and Garcia before Spence, things don?t look good. Worse yet, Porter and Garcia seem more than fine with fighting one another and/or waiting on Thurman.
There?s also the matter of Spence?s IBF belt keeping him tied to the occasional pointless mandatory (like this June?s reported bout with no-hope Carlos Ocampo) while allowing for the other top welters to keep their distance as ?WBC? fighters.
If Showtime would be as aggressive in pushing Spence as HBO was in pushing Gennady Golovkin, maybe they, too, could shame Spence into a big payday or two. But, so far, the premium cable network has been nowhere near as shameless in promoting Spence as their premium rival was in championing the cause of ?Triple G.?
So, that leaves a distressing bit of uneasiness in the air when it comes to Errol Spence and his future. Will Haymon or Showtime brass have to step in and force a legacy fight for the only welterweight in their stable with true legend-level potential?
If left on their own, it?s clear that Thurman, Porter, and Garcia would be more than happy to fight one another for all eternity. There?s enough there for all of them to make some serious bank for a few years without ever addressing the challenge of Spence.
And, really, none of the potential combos coming from those three are BAD. They?re good fights. They?re just not taking into account the one guy who could actually become the big American star the US fight scene needs.
