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| Ryan Hafey/PBC |
Errol Spence Jr. survived horrific car wrecks, PTSD and one of boxing’s most brutal defeats. Saturday night in Australia, another loss could leave one of the finest welterweights of his generation with nowhere left to go.
Spence already completed one remarkable comeback. He climbed back to the top after two terrifying car accidents, a detached retina and the PTSD that followed, proving every doubt about his future wrong by returning to unify the welterweight division.
The Terence Crawford Knockout
Then came Terence Crawford.
The Spence who entered the ring in Las Vegas in July 2023 barely resembled the relentless pressure fighter who had dominated one of boxing’s toughest divisions for years. Crawford controlled the fight before stopping him in the ninth round, handing Spence the first defeat of his professional career.
Almost three years later, Spence heads to Australia facing the biggest test of his comeback.
The crashes never defined Spence because he came back to defend his world titles. Saturday offers him one chance to prove Crawford didn’t change him forever.
During a tense episode of PBC Face To Face, Spence acknowledged the doubts that have followed him ever since that night.
“I want to fight someone that people have doubts about me beating them,” Spence said. “They gotta ask if I’m the same killer. I’m coming to prove to myself and to everybody else that I am still the biggest, in any division that I’m in.”
Nobody questioned whether Spence could return after the crashes because he answered every challenge in the ring. But for the first time in his career, many wondered whether they were watching the same Errol Spence.
Tim Tszyu Sees Vulnerability
Tim Tszyu certainly isn’t convinced.
“I respect what you’ve done in your career, but you haven’t had a fight in three years,” Tszyu said. “How can I say I know definitively that you’re ready?”
Nobody can answer that until the opening bell.
After almost three years away from the ring, Spence rebuilt under renowned trainer Ronnie Shields. Rather than easing back with a tune-up, he accepted one of the toughest assignments available by traveling to Australia to face a former world champion in front of a partisan crowd.
The preparation has hardly been flawless. Spence was originally expected to weigh no more than 158 pounds before the bout but was unable to make the agreed mark, forcing a late adjustment to 160.
On its own, the change may prove insignificant, but combined with three years of inactivity, the punishment his body has absorbed and the doubts created by Crawford, it becomes another concern Spence simply didn’t need.
“This fight came at the perfect moment,” Spence said. “I didn’t want a tune-up, so when Tim Tszyu got brought up, I said I’ll fight him in Australia.”
That belief has carried Spence through every chapter of his career and into the biggest comeback of his life.
One More Defeat Could End the Road Back
Victory would silence many of the doubts surrounding his future and place him back among the leading names at super welterweight.
A knockout defeat is another matter entirely.
Another stoppage loss would leave Spence almost six years removed from his last defining victory and facing enormous questions about whether another world title opportunity will ever come.
At 36, after two near-fatal car wrecks, PTSD, eye problems, the Crawford defeat, three years away from the ring and now an interrupted weight plan, another Pay Per View headliner would become almost impossible to imagine.
Spence has already overcome twisted metal, shattered expectations and the psychological scars left by two near-fatal crashes. He even admitted before facing Crawford that he believed the biggest payday of his career would at least provide for his family if he never came home.
Tszyu isn’t testing Spence’s courage on Saturday. He’s testing whether the fighter Bud dismantled still exists.
If Tszyu knocks Spence out on Saturday, it won’t simply be another defeat. It could close the book on one of the greatest welterweight careers of the modern era.
- Phil Jay
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