By Keith Idec
The Manchester hotel at which welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr. stayed for a week is just one block away from Manchester Arena, where a suicidal terrorist detonated a bomb Monday night that killed 22 people and injured 59 others as they left the building following an Ariana Grande concert.
A source close to Spence told BoxingScene.com on Tuesday that Spence had checked out of the hotel earlier Monday because he and his team relocated, as planned, to a hotel in Sheffield, England.
Manchester is about a half-hour away from Sheffield, where the undefeated Spence, of DeSoto, Texas, will challenge IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) on Saturday night. They’ll fight at Bramall Lane, a soccer stadium in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield.
The card headlined by Brook-Spence is expected to proceed as planned, despite that the United Kingdom raised its terrorism threat level from “severe” to “critical” on Tuesday. British prime minister Theresa May also announced Tuesday that intelligence officials have warned that another attack may be “imminent.”
Until Monday, Spence (21-0, 18 KOs) had stayed at a Manchester hotel since arriving in England on May 14 because he was using Amir Khan’s gym in nearby Bolton for the last week of training camp. The source said that a van transporting Spence and his team from Manchester to Sheffield drove directly past Manchester Arena several hours before the attack, when concertgoers were starting to enter the arena for the show Monday night.
The 27-year-old Spence, who fought for the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
The powerful southpaw, Brook’s mandatory challenger, arrived in England nearly two full weeks before boxing Brook because he wanted an ample amount of time to shake off jet lag, and to get accustomed to a new environment and time zone.
Showtime will broadcast Brook-Spence on Saturday in the United States (5:15 p.m. ET/2:15 p.m. PT). Their scheduled 12-rounder, Brook’s first fight since middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin stopped him in the fifth round September 10 in London, will be televised via Sky Sports Box Office in the United Kingdom (6 p.m. BST; £16.95 in HD).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.