Errol Spence lost out on his title shot against WBC/WBO Junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora on Thursday when the WBO chose not to sanction the fight. Fundora has moved on and will fight someone else, leaving Spence high and dry.
Spence Defiant
When Spence was asked on X today when he would return, he responded defiantly, “I’ll be back when I’m ready.”
Fans want the 34-year-old Spence to retire because he has been too inactive over the last five years. His lackluster performances in the last six years since 2019 signal that he has been on the slide for a long time.
The former unified welterweight champion, Spence (28-1, 22 KOs), has been inactive for 18 months since his loss to Terence Crawford on July 29, 2023. He has no fights scheduled and seemingly no prospects.
Errol was counting on the Fundora fight happening, as that would have been a nice payday against a beatable two-belt champion. A vintage Spence from 2012 to 2018 would likely make easy work of Fundora and probably would have been too much for Crawford, too.
Spence’s car crash in 2019, along with inactivity, weight problems, injuries, and ring wear, has taken a lot out of the old shark. Now, it seems Spence isn’t in a hurry to get back in the ring due to his bad experience in his ninth-round knockout loss to Crawford. You can’t blame him for that.
Errol’s Limited Options
There aren’t many winnable fights for Spence at the top of the 154-lb division, and the paydays are slim. Spence can make good money fighting Tim Tszyu because there would be Australian PPV money. If Spence has anything left of his pre-car crash form, he should be able to beat Tszyu. It’s questionable, though. He might be too shot to beat even Tszyu.
