Tag: Errol Spence Jr.

Pound-for-pound: The fall of Julian Williams

Julian Williams’ knockout loss to Jeison Rosario on Saturday put a damper on his pound-for-pound hopes.

Julian Williams had said that his goal was to become the No. 1 fighter pound-for-pound. Well, that’s going to be a lot more difficult now.

Williams, who had been an honorable mention on the Boxing Junkie list of best fighters, was knocked out in five rounds by relatively obscure Jeison Rosario to lose his junior middleweight titles Saturday in Philadelphia.

“JRock” probably will get another crack at Rosario because of a rematch clause. However, even a victory would only be a small step toward pound-for-pound supremacy.

Williams rebounded from disappointment before, climbing back to elite status after he was knocked out by Jermall Charlo. But coming back from two knockouts? That’s not easy.

Alas, Williams is off our list after his setback Saturday. Replacing him as an honorable mention is Teofimo Lopez, the unbeaten lightweight titleholder who is coming off a sensational second-round knockout of Richard Commey in December.

Lopez, 22, could face his own Waterloo soon; he’s negotiating to meet Vasiliy Lomachenko, Boxing Junkie’s No. 1 fighter. Of course, a victory would catapult Lopez into the Top 10.

You just never know. Ask Williams.

Check out our pound-for-pound list below. And let us know what you think.

BOXING JUNKIE

POUND-FOR-POUND

  1. Vasiliy Lomachenko
  2. Terence Crawford
  3. Canelo Alvarez
  4. Naoya Inoue
  5. Oleksandr Usyk
  6. Gennadiy Golovkin
  7. Errol Spence Jr.
  8. Juan Francisco Estrada
  9. Mikey Garcia
  10. Artur Beterbiev
  11. Josh Taylor
  12. Manny Pacquiao
  13. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai
  14. Leo Santa Cruz
  15. Kosei Tanaka

Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Miguel Berchelt, Mairis Briedis, Tyson Fury, Teofimo Lopez, Shawn Porter

Keith Thurman: Healing, hungry but in no hurry

Keith Thurman said his surgically repaired left hand is healing and he’s look forward to having a “terrific comeback year.”

Keith Thurman’s hand is healing and he’s looking forward to a successful 2020 – and beyond.

Thurman had bone-fusion surgery to treat arthritis in the joints of his left hand in September and was recently cleared to get back into ring, although it will be while before he hits anything with the repaired paw. He expects to fight again in the spring.

“I just got an updated x-ray and the doctor said all seems good,” Thurman said on The PBC Podcast. “I’m going to start increasing strength work and pretty soon I’ll be back in the ring. I’m looking forward to have a great 2020.”

The decision to have the surgery was a gradual process for Thurman, who had missed time earlier because of other injuries.

He was advised to have surgery before his majority-decision victory over Josesito Lopez in January of last year but decided to rely on cortisone rather than the knife because he didn’t want to miss more time.

He also fought with a tender hand in his split-decision loss to Manny Pacquiao in July. A few days later, he aggravated the hand playing Top Golf. It was then that he realized that he had to have surgery.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said, referring to his misadventure while hitting golf balls. “I realized if you can’t play Top Golf, you ain’t fighting nobody else. You need to go ahead and get surgery, relax and accept everything that’s happened to you this year.

“… I had two doctors confirm to me that [surgery] would prolong my career. It’s bone fusion. When the bone heals, it normally heals stronger. So I’m hoping to go back to the original Keith Thurman, ‘One Time’ Thurman.”

When will he be able to hit something with his left?

“I’m waiting for the green light,” he said. “I could be touching the bags as soon as March. All I have to do is strengthen it from here on out. The fusion looks pretty complete.”

Thurman also said two things will be different going forward. One, after enduring the hand problems, he’s not going to rush anything. And, two, he is going to do a better job of controlling his weight between fights.

“I got five more years in this sport,” he said. “I want to be the original problem that I once was in the welterweight division. … I’m making weight. But how did I go about making weight? I had 11-week training camps. For the Josesito Lopez fight, I lost 35 pounds before January. I blew up to 182 pounds and then had to lose 35 pounds in 11 weeks for the Manny Pacquiao fight.

“One thing I learned going into 2020 is for Keith Thurman to be the best he can be. I can’t be 35 pounds overweight. … I gotta take the Bernard Hopkins approach and be ready at all times.”

Thurman also discussed potential opponents. He’d love a rematch with Pacquiao. Same goes for Danny Garcia. And he would be thrilled to take on the No. 1 147-pounder, Errol Spence Jr.

That said, he seems to be more focused on being 100 percent ready when an opportunity presents itself.

“I’m looking forward to having a terrific comeback year,” he said. “I know I belong at the top as champion of the world. So I have to go grab somebody’s belt.”

Errol Spence’s trainer: Terence Crawford has ‘poor technique’

Derrick James, Errol Spence Jr.’s trainer, believes his fighter would knock out Terence Crawford if they were to fight.

Derrick James, the trainer of Errol Spence Jr., hopes his fighter will face Terence Crawford one day. And he’s pretty sure he knows what will happen if it happens.

James was asked on The PBC Podcast how a Spence-Crawford fight would play out and he laughed.

“I’m going to say what Errol would say. He would say, ‘one-sided performance,’” James said. “… I think he’d knock him out.”

That doesn’t mean that James has no respect for Crawford, the three-division champion who some believe is the best fighter in the world. He does. He just qualifies his praise.

“Besides Manny Pacquiao and I say Claressa Shields now, [Crawford] is the most-decorated professional fighter right now,” said James, referring to Crawford’s collection of belts. “But I think the level of competition has not been there. So I think they’ve anointed him something he has not technically earned because he’s never fought quality, like top, top [opponents].

“I don’t think he has. You can say [Yuriorkis] Gamboa but that was like, what, 20 years ago? So I think it’s interesting.”

James went on. And he didn’t hold back.

“I think Terence Crawford is naturally an amazing athlete but he has very weak, poor fundamentals and poor technique,” he said. “It will come into play [in a fight with Spence]. … I think he’s a great fighter, very decorated. He’s won a lot of fights. He’d been great. We’ll just see.”

Meanwhile, James said Spence has been back in the gym for a few weeks after surviving a horrific car crash in October. And, James said, he looks like … well, Spence.

“It’s just like he hadn’t left,” said James, who doesn’t have Spence sparring yet. “… I’m watching him, looking for everything. If he’s reacting slower, if he’s not seeing punching coming. … He’s making all the right moves, doing everything correct.”

James doesn’t know when or who Spence might fight next. He leaves that up to the fighter and his management team. And he can’t say whether he believes Spence should take a tune-up fight or jump right into a major event, at least not yet.

“I want him to have what he wants,” he said. “We’re gauging him from this point on to see if that’s (a tune-up) something we would need or just go into something big. We’re gauging him. So we’ll know.”

One thing seems certain: Spence won’t be fighting Crawford soon. One day, though, Crawford is likely to get his chance to prove James wrong.

Pound-for-pound: What will the list look like in 2020?

Nos. 1 and 2 Vasiliy Lomachenko and Terence Crawford are still amazing in their early 30s but many gifted fighters are hot on their heels.

The Boxing Junkie pound-for-pound list has been fairly stable since its inception. That could change in 2020.

Nos. 1 and 2 Vasiliy Lomachenko and Terence Crawford are still amazing in their early 30s but a number of gifted fighters — some much younger — are hot on their heels.

No. 3 Canelo Alvarez is always a threat to climb higher if Lomachenko and/or Crawford slip. No. 4 Naoya Inoue, only 26, already is No. 1 on some lists. No. 5 Oleksandr Usyk, now a heavyweight, probably will rise if he takes down the giants in the sport.

No. 6 Gennadiy Golovkin still lurks but is 37. No. 7 Errol Spence Jr., recovered from his car accident, has No. 1 pound-for-pound written all over him. No. 8 Juan Estrada is probably underappreciated. No. 9 Mikey Garcia shouldn’t be dismissed because of his loss to Spence. And No. 10 Artur Beterbiev, an imposing brawler, is on the ascent.

That’s a strong Top 10.

Beyond them, our Nos. 11-15 are all poised to move up if the opportunities are there. And hot young fighters like Gervonta Davis, Jose Ramirez and Teofimo Lopez are knocking on the door.

Bottom line: There are many talented, hungry fighters who dream not only if winning titles but also gaining recognition as the very best in the sport.

Check out our final Top 15 list of 2019 below. Check back next year. And let us know what you think.

BOXING JUNKIE

POUND-FOR-POUND

  1. Vasiliy Lomachenko
  2. Terence Crawford
  3. Canelo Alvarez
  4. Naoya Inoue
  5. Oleksandr Usyk
  6. Gennadiy Golovkin
  7. Errol Spence Jr.
  8. Juan Francisco Estrada
  9. Mikey Garcia
  10. Artur Beterbiev
  11. Josh Taylor
  12. Manny Pacquiao
  13. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai
  14. Leo Santa Cruz
  15. Kosei Tanaka

Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Miguel Berchelt, Mairis Briedis, Tyson Fury, Shawn Porter, Julian Williams

Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter: 3 reasons to make fight

A welterweight matchup between Terence Crawford and Shawn Porter makes sense for a lot of reasons.

No one knows which – if any – of the PBC welterweights will fight Terence Crawford any time soon. Promotional and TV rivalries are often unyielding.

That said, if there is any accuracy to current chatter, it seems that momentum is building toward a showdown between Boxing Junkie’s No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter and Shawn Porter. If nothing else, the veteran contender said that the fighters, not Top Rank (Crawford) and PBC (Porter), will decide whether they will fight.

If it happens, fans are in for a treat. Crawford’s all-around ability and Porter’s relentless pressure should make for an entertaining matchup.

Here are three reasons I would like the fight to happen:

CRAWFORD NEEDS A TEST AT 147

Crawford is arguably the best fighter pound-for-pound in the division, as I mentioned earlier. However, he’s probably No. 2 at the weight – behind Errol Spence Jr. – because he hasn’t proved enough at 147 pounds. His victims  in the division: Jeff Horn, Jose Benavidez Jr., Amir Khan and Egidijus Kavaliauskas.

A fight with Porter, a respected former two-time welterweight titleholder coming off an inspired performance against Spence, would provide Crawford with the opportunity to prove he can beat a next-level opponent and demonstrate his credentials at 147.

Of course, any of the top PBC welterweights – Porter, Spence, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman or Manny Pacquiao – would serve that purpose.

SPENCE BEAT PORTER

The best possible opponent for Crawford is Spence. The winner of the fight would be the undisputed king of the division.

The next best opponent? Porter, because Spence just beat him – barely. Spence had to dig deeper than he ever had to in his previous fights to win a split decision – 116-111, 116-111 and 112-115 – and maintain his perfect record.

If Crawford can beat Porter, particularly if he can beat him more easily than Spence did, he will have made a strong statement and added intrigue to a potential future matchup with Spence.

THEY BOTH DESERVE THE OPPORTUNITY

Crawford is a three-division titleholder and, even if you have reservations about him, a Top 5 fighter in the world. Indeed, he has dazzled us fight after fight with his ability, power and killer instinct, which we saw in his most recent fight against Kavaliauskas on Dec. 14.

The thought of the 32-year-old future Hall of Famer failing to lure another top welterweight into the ring because of boxing politics is depressing.

Porter gave the performance of his long, successful career against Spence, pushing his more highly regarded opponent to his limit, only to lose a split decision – and his title – in a fight-of-the-year candidate in September.

To fight that well and that hard yet come up empty was devastating for Porter, who proved he belonged in the ring with the very best. He earned a shot at Crawford and his title.

Fighter of the Year: Boxing Junkie staffers pick Canelo Alvarez 2-1

Two Boxing Junkie staffers picked Canelo Alvarez for their Fighter of the Year, one went with Naoya Inoue.

The process of selecting a Fighter of the Year comes down to two factors: level of opposition and results.

A number of elite fighters faced high-level foes and had favorable results. That would include Canelo Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao, Naoya Inoue, Errol Spence Jr., Josh Taylor and a few others. A case can be made for each.

For this post, Boxing Junkie staff members selected their personal Fighter of the Year. And if majority rules, we came up with a collective winner: Alvarez.

Here are our choices for Fighter of the Year and thoughts:

MICHAEL ROSENTHAL

Choice: Canelo Alvarez
Results: Daniel Jacobs (UD 12), Sergey Kovalev (KO 11)

Alvarez defeated Jacobs by a unanimous decision in May, although the fight was close. And he closed out the year by moving up two divisions and knocking out Kovalev in the 11th round last month.

That’s a strong year.

Alvarez’s performance against Kovalev wasn’t great – the fight was tight on the cards at the time of the stoppage – but the ending was spectacular.

I think Alvarez’s principal rival for the award is the ageless Pacquiao, who, at 40 years old, easily outpointed Adrien Broner and then defeated Keith Thurman by a unanimous decision.

That’s a fine year but, if we want to quibble, the smallish Broner has never performed well at welterweight and Thurman was still in the process of coming back from a long layoff, although the latter victory by Pacquiao was still special.

Canelo Alvarez moved up two weight classes to face Sergey Kovalev and stopped him. AP Photo / John Locher

SEAN NAM

Choice: Canelo Alvarez

Sure, Sergey Kovalev was past his prime, but how many fighters would skip two weight classes to challenge perhaps the most accomplished light heavyweight of the past half decade?

Alvarez did exactly that and did not disappoint, applying methodical pressure before scoring a vicious 11th round knockout last month.

And at middleweight Alvarez outpointed top contender Danny Jacobs.

Naoya Inoue of Japan (right) and Nonito Donaire turned in a classic last month, with Inoue emerging victorious. Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP via Getty Images

NORM FRAUENHEIM

Choice: Naoya Inoue
Results: Emmanuel Rodriguez (KO 2), Nonito Donaire (UD 12)

Inoue gets the nod over Alvarez because of just one fight. Inoue’s dramatic victory over Nonito Donaire was one for the ages, a Fight of the Year in just about any year.

Canelo had a good year, beating Danny Jacobs, who in retrospect might have been drained in his battle to make weight. On the morning of the bout, he missed a weight mandated by a dehydration clause. Against Sergey Kovalev, Canelo was a finisher – meaning he ended any debate in a 11th-round stoppage. Yet it often looked as if Kovalev was there only to pick up a paycheck.

In Inoue-Donaire, there were no questions, no doubt in either corner about what had transpired. On every level, it was a classic. Win it, and you are Fighter of the Year.