By Rick Reeno
Pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26KOs) has a lot of respect for up and coming welterweight prospect Errol Spence Jr. (16-0, 13KOs).
Spence is scheduled to return on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, as part of the Premier Boxing Champions telecast on NBC. He was set to fight Roberto Garcia, who withdrew from the fight on Wednesday due to weight issues. The current frontrunner to replace Garcia on short notice is welterweight contender Phil Lo Greco (26-1, 14 KOs) of Canada .
Spence, a former Olympian with a mountain of talent, is highly regarded in the industry and viewed as a fighter with the ability to become a potential superstar.
Mayweather is among the many who recognizes Spence's talent and confidently believes the 25-year-old fighter is ready to fight, and beat, feared welterweight puncher Keith Thurman (25-0, 21KOs).
Thurman defends his WBA 'regular' welterweight title against Luis Collazo on July 11th. Mayweather holds the WBA's 'super' version of the welterweight crown.
Spence believes he's ready as well. As early as last December, Spence was already expressing his desire to get Thurman (among others) in the ring.
"He's a hell of a fighter. It's going to take a little bit more [for him to become a star]. Me and Errol Spence talk. We talk and I think that for his next fight, what I think is a good matchup is Keith Thurman. I think that should be a championship fght. I think him and Keith Thurman should fight for a title, his next fight. He's ready," Mayweather said.
