Before Errol Spence Jr.’s career-altering car accident October 10, it seemed as if a fight against Danny Garcia would be next for the unbeaten IBF/WBC welterweight champion.
Spence and Garcia might’ve met January 25 in a FOX Sports Pay-Per-View main event had Spence not suffered serious injuries in that one-car crash six months ago in Dallas. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has indefinitely delayed all boxing matches, Spence suspects he’ll return to the ring in September or October, not July or August, as he had previously planned.
Whenever he fights, Spence still hopes to square off against Garcia. Mauricio Sulaiman, the WBC’s president, revealed late last month that Garcia is its mandatory challenger for Spence’s 147-pound championship, thus their high-profile fight also would enable Spence to fulfill that sanctioning organization’s obligation.
The 30-year-old Spence mentioned Garcia among the “big names” he’d like to face during an Instagram Live interview Monday with Premier Boxing Champions’ Ray Flores.
“It’s a fight that makes sense,” Spence said. “Danny Garcia, he’s a very, you know, tough fighter. You know, he’s a guy [who has] accomplished a lot in the sport of boxing. And that’s a fight that really makes sense, so I mean, it’s a fight that can definitely happen next.”
Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) also included WBO champion Terence Crawford and WBA champ Manny Pacquiao among those “big names,” but Garcia seems more likely to face Spence next than Crawford or Pacquiao.
Philadelphia’s Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) is the WBC’s second-ranked welterweight contender, behind only top-ranked Shawn Porter.
Spence won the WBC welterweight title from Las Vegas’ Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs) in his last fight. The southpaw from DeSoto, Texas, defeated Porter by split decision in their 12-round title unification match September 28 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Porter won a then-vacant WBC 147-pound crown by beating Garcia, who lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Porter in September 2018 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Garcia has knocked out Adrian Granados (20-8-2, 14 KOs, 1 NC) in the seventh round and out-pointed Ivan Redkach (23-5-1, 18 KOs, 1 NC) in a 12-round WBC elimination match since Porter defeated him.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.