The heavyweight division aside, who is the biggest star of the sport today? Maybe it’s Canelo Alvarez, maybe it’s Gennady Golovkin, maybe in your opinion it’s some other fighter. But one man who says he fully expects to break out and become the next superstar of boxing in 2019 is current IBF welterweight champ Errol Spence. Spence has that look about him, that quality the special fighters have, and “The Truth” says that after he makes good on his plan of “destroying” Mikey Garcia next March, he will indeed become the next big thing of boxing.
Spence, who spoke with Fight Hub TV, said that after he has dealt with Garcia and then some familiar names at 147, he will become “That Guy.”
“Definitely. Especially if I destroy Mikey Garcia the way I plan on beating him; I definitely become that breakout star and that superstar,” Spence, 24-0(21) said. “I feel that this [coming] year should be a great year for me. After I get rid of Mikey and fight Shawn [Porter] and then hopefully fight Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, I think I’ll basically be, you know, ‘that’ guy.”
For Garcia, the big motivation driving him to victory against Spence in March is the chance to put his name in the history books as one of only six men to have ever won world titles in five separate weight divisions (Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather being the only fighters to have so far managed it) but if Garcia did manage to pull it off, he could become the next superstar of the sport himself.
It is, though, tough to make a great case, or even a good case, for a Garcia win in March. Spence, for many the best welterweight in the world today, is not just so much bigger than Garcia, he is also a superb talent – a talent who punches both hard and with incredible speed and accuracy.
So is Spence the next superstar of boxing if he beats Garcia, then Porter (what a great fight that could be), then Thurman (ditto) and then Danny Garcia? Star quality of course consists of many things, and not just winning fights. Personality has a lot to do with it, as does an exciting fighting style. That said, Spence really does seem to tick all the boxes.
At age 28, southpaw Spence conceivably has around five or six years in which to become a superstar and carry the sport. Maybe the man from Texas will indeed be THE man from 2019 onwards.
