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After a thrilling win over Shawn Porter, Errol Spence Jr’s next fight is already lined up.
No, Terence Crawford is not next for Errol Spence.
For those of you who didn’t exit this column after the opening sentence, the newly unified IBF/WBC welterweight champion has a deal in place to fight former WBC champion Danny Garcia in early January on another FOX pay-per-view. This is per The Athletic’s Mike Coppinger.
Sources: Deal in place for Errol Spence Jr. to defend unified welterweight championship vs. Danny Garcia, pegged for Jan. 25, in a PBC on FOX PPV. Garcia confronted Spence during champ’s in-ring interview with @HeidiAndrol after victory over Shawn Porter last night #SpencePorter
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) September 29, 2019
FOX Sports reporter Heidi Androl confirmed after Spence’s fight with Shawn Porter that Garcia was next for Spence, but we didn’t know the targeted date until Coppinger’s report.
Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) engaged in a 12-round thriller with Porter on Saturday at Staples Center, winning a split decision in what was undoubtedly the toughest fight of his career. He unified half of the four major welterweight titles with that victory, which came on the heels of his thorough dispatching of former WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia. He is widely considered one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world, and his star-power has clearly increased in recent bouts.
Garcia (35-2, 21 KOs) is a former unified 140 lbs champion, with his TKO of Amir Khan representing one of the top highlights of his career. In 2013, he really made a name for himself with an entertaining decision victory over the heavy-handed Lucas Matthysse. The 31-year-old Philly native won the vacant WBC welterweight belt over Robert Guerrero in 2016, but lost it in a split decision to Keith Thurman. After stopping Brandon Rios in 2018, he took on Shawn Porter, again for the vacant WBC title, and dropped a close decision. His lone fight of 2019 saw him become the first person to stop Adrian Granados, scoring multiple knockdowns and getting a seventh-round TKO.
While Garcia is a very good boxer and one of the top welterweights in the world, this probably won’t get the juices flowing a whole lot. It’s an easy fight for PBC to make given they are both aligned with Al Haymon, and if there’s a positive out of this at least Spence has just a four-month break between fights.
Given that January 25th is a week before the Super Bowl, expect some heavy promotion from FOX for Spence once more.