The unbeaten Errol Spence Jr. takes on the vastly experienced Danny Garcia at the home of Dallas Cowboys this weekend as the Texan looks to defend his IBF & WBC World Welterweight titles for the second time.
We'll be having a look at where the fight will be won and lost for both fighters and giving our prediction for it.
A highly decorated amateur, Spence was a three-time winner of the National Championships at welterweight and won the Golden Gloves back in 2009. The American went on to represent the USA at the 2012 Olympics in London but was unfortunately beaten in the quarter-finals. He ended his amateur career with a record of 135 wins and 12 losses from 147 fights.
His professional career has so far been nothing short of phenomenal. Currently, with a record of 26 wins and 21 stoppage victories from 26 bouts, he bypassed domestic titles and didn't fight for his first title until his 22nd fight when he travelled to Sheffield and put on an absolute clinic to stop the then IBF champ Kell Brook in the 11th round.
He then brushed past Lamont Peterson and the unbeaten Carlos Ocampo with convincing stoppage wins before claiming points victories over the highly-rated Mikey Garcia and Shawn Porter, becoming one of the first men to drop Porter in his career so far.
However, then came the biggest fight of his life. On October 10th 2019, Spence was involved in a high-speed car crash when writing off his Ferrari 488 Spider in Dallas. Despite suffering life-changing lacerations, Spence miraculously escaped from the crash with no broken bones however he was charged with drink driving. This will be his first fight since the incident.
So how does Spence beat Garcia?
For starters, he is absolutely enormous for the weight. Standing at 5ft10 with a reach of 72 inches, he's made a career out of outmanning his opponents with his superior size and strength. So the first and most obvious way to win the fight would be to just bully the smaller man on the outside and inside which he's more than capable of doing. But along with this, he is by far the better boxer out of the two.
In all, Spence can win this fight whatever way he wants. If he wants to get on his back foot and win the fight with his jab, he can. If he wants to take the fight to Garcia and tire him out early then look for the stoppage, he can. Garcia is a top-quality fighter there's no doubting that but the best Spence is just a level above him.
A National Champion at amateur level like Spence, Garcia has had the much longer professional career having entered the paid ranks five years before the Texan in 2007.
Garcia had a terrific start to his professional career winning his first 30 fights and becoming the unified Super Lightweight champion of the world with stand out victories over the likes of Amir Khan, Erik Morales and Zab Judah. The American then took the step up to welterweight and in his second fight at the weight, he claimed the WBC title with a stoppage victory over Samuel Vargas.
However, this is when his career took a turn for the worse. He went down to a split decision loss to Keith Thurman and despite bouncing back and stopping Brandon Rios, he was then defeated by Spence's last victim in the shape of Shawn Porter.
So for the million-dollar question, which no professional fighter has so far been able to answer, how do you beat Errol Spence?
Well, if there was ever a clue, you have to look at Spence's last fight against Shawn Porter. Porter is renowned for his relentless pressure and that's exactly what he applied for 12 rounds against Spence and he made it a dirty fight and refused to let Spence box at range. If Garcia can do the same, then he's got a chance.
Also, this is Spence's first fight since his horrific car crash. The cuts he suffered were horrendous and if they haven't healed properly, this will play massively in Garcia's favour so don't be surprised to see him neglect the body of Spence and literally headhunt for as long as he is in the fight.
On paper, this should be a convincing Spence victory.
The unbeaten boxer is comfortably the biggest puncher that Garcia has ever faced and really, in all, he's probably the best technical boxer that Garcia has faced, bar Amir Khan.
If this is the Errol Spence of 18 months ago, he wins this fight whatever way he wants but when you take the circumstances into consideration, you really can't rule Garcia out that easily.
Expect Spence to start slow and Garcia to put it on him from the off. Garcia cannot afford to let the Texan settle into a rhythm and find a home for his jab early. The lateral movement of Garcia is one of his finer traits and he's also known to have a pretty solid chin so he can afford to set a ferocious pace early on to just see how well Spence has recovered from that car accident and who knows, if Spence gets cut early that is going to be detrimental into the result of the fight.
However, we can only look at this fight from what we've seen of both fighters so far and if Spence is fully recovered mentally and physically from last years incident, he should come out on top and look very good in the process considering the way Garcia is likely to put on him from the start. We're backing Garcia to try and force the fight from the get-go but to no avail and Spence to get him out of there in the latter rounds once Garcia starts to gas a bit.
Prediction: Errol Spence to win by KO/TKO/DQ @ 9/4.
