Spence Jr. Ignites Buzz In Welterweight Division
By Ralph Rimpell
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 25 Jan 2018
Not since the days of Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran has there been such a Buzz in the Welterweight division (147lbs). For those not familiar with the term ?Buzz? in a boxing sense, it means people are talking, interested, excited, etc. when it comes to the welterweight division.
The talent pool truly runs deep! Consider this fact. All the top fighters are current or former world champions. The division boast living legend Manny Pacquiao, Unified WBC/?Super? WBA champ Keith Thurman, WBO Champ Jeff Horn, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Terrance Crawford, Lucas Matthysse*, Adrian Broner, Amir Kahn, and IBF King Errol Spence who at this point seems to be the leader of the pack. Spence Jr. is the ?Spark? or the last ingredient that makes this division really interesting! Who is Errol Spence Jr?
He was born on Long Island, New York but grew up in Texas. As an amateur he won three National Championships and participated in the 2012 Olympic Games. Shortly thereafter, he turned professional and he has been perfecting his boxing skills in the gym and against all opponents thus far with a professional record of 23-0, 20KOs.
He has earned the respect of fighters like the Great Floyd Mayweather and World Champions Jermall and Jermell Charlo. Last May 27, 2017 he went into enemy territory focused and determined to take Kell Brook?s IBF title in front of 27000 spectators.
Last Saturday he defeated two time world champion Lamont Peterson at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York. Had Peterson not vacated his ?Regular? WBA welterweight title it could have very well been a unification championship match between both champions. Spence battered Peterson within 8 rounds forcing Peterson?s corner to stop the match. This victory established Spence as a major player in the welterweight division.
Spence has called out Keith Thurman and has stated he wants to fight 3 times for the year. The IBF sanctioning body has ordered Spence to fulfill his mandatory defense of his title against contender Carlos Ocampo. Should he prevail against Ocampo, it will be interesting to see potential matchups such as Spence vs Crawford, Spence vs Thurman, or even Spence-Porter.
The thought of these matchups leave hardcore fans salivating and will likely arouse interest from ?mainstream? fans. What?s even more interesting about the elite fighters of the welterweight division is that they all appear willing to want to fight each other, which is not always the case in other weight divisions in boxing. If enough interested is generated in the ?Mainstream? perhaps Floyd ?Money? Mayweather, Jr. may be tempted to come out of retirement for another $200 million plus payday to fight whoever emerges as the ?best of the best? of these welterweight stars. The year 2018 will prove to be an exciting year as Errol Spence Jr. leads the way.
*WBC interim light welterweight title
Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com
About the Author:
***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history.
"I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.
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