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Errol Spence says he wants Manny Pacquiao next, but Pacman seems only interested in Floyd Mayweather

  • Boxing politics continue to go around and around with fighters chasing particular routes to riches
  • The stacked welterweight division is compulsive viewing at the moment

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Errol Spence Jnr was made to work mightily hard for his ‘w’ against fellow American Shawn Porter in Los Angeles, California on Saturday. Photo: EPA
Despite Danny Garcia clambering awkwardly into the ring to quickly stake his claim moments after Errol Spence Jnr was awarded the victory over a teak tough Shawn Porter in California on Saturday night, the unbeaten, now-unified welterweight champion Spence says he wants his next opponent to be Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao.
Following Spence’s hard-fought split decision win over Porter, it appeared to be announced that Garcia (35-2) would be next up for “The Truth”. The fight makes a lot of sense; Garcia is a fine fighter and a former welterweight champion, who has only lost in razor-thin decisions (though both losses have come in his last four outings). Garcia would have been hoping to propel himself back into the conversation for king of the stacked 147 glamour division.

However, Spence suggested he has other ideas after staking his claim for the upper reaches of the best pound-for-pound rankings by coming through a definite fight of the year contender with Porter.

With the Porter fight raising his profile higher than it’s been since his surprise win over Kell Brook in May 2017, and as the only unified champion in the division, Spence has his eye on undisputed honours and aims to hoover up the rest of the division’s hardware.

Those factors seem most likely to lead him to the ageing Pacquiao, after his superb win over Keith Thurman earlier this year propelled him back among the welterweight nobility, and then on to unbeaten fellow American Terence Crawford, arguably the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, for what would undoubtedly be a box office barn burner, when the two can overcome their network and promotional differences that is.

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