Welterweight has always been one of the most talent rich divisions in boxing.
The current landscape has Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr. on the top of the heap with the WBC and IBF titles, Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford with the WBO and Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao holding the WBA belt hostage.
Spence was in a bad car accident in October after his victorious unification bout over Shawn Porter. He was ejected from his Ferrari but managed to survive with only superficial injuries such has cuts and broken teeth.
Terence Crawford just had a very tough out against ‘The Mean Machine’ Egidijus Kavaliauskas, and Manny Pacquiao scrapped by with a split decision win over a rusty Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman to claim the WBA super title.
The welterweight showdown the boxing world wants to see the most is the battle between two undefeated American welterweight champions Errol Spence and Terence Crawford.
The fight was being held up because Crawford is with Top Rank and Spence is with Al Haymon, but recently Deontay Wilder who is a Haymon fighter and with PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) signed to fight Tyson Fury who is with Bob Arum and Top Rank in the most anticipated heavyweight rematch, and it will be broadcast on both FOX and ESPN+.
If Wilder vs Fury II can get done, there is glimmer of hope for a Spence vs. Crawford showdown in the future.
One welterweight who is holding a title and has been known to carefully pick and choose his opponents is Manny Pacquiao.
He jumped ship to avoid a fight with Terence Crawford while he was at Top Rank, and kept trying to get Vasyl Lomachenko a much smaller man to come up in weight to fight him.
When Bob Arum refused to allow the Lomachenko fight and offered Pacquiao a Crawford fight, Pacquiao demanded an absurd amount of money. Arum tried to reason with Pacquiao telling him his drawing power wasn’t the same as it was pre-Mayweather fight and that type of money he is requesting is not reasonable.
When a fighter demands an unrealistic amount of money for a fight its basically them ducking and saying they don’t want the fight. Pacquiao left Top Rank because he didn’t want that smoke.
Pacquiao went over to Al Haymon and PBC only to pick Adrien Broner and then an injured Keith Thurman who revealed he had an injured hand going into the fight with Pacquiao making it hard for him to really sit on his shots.
Pacquiao struggled with Thurman and some people felt Thurman even won the fight. What annoyed me was the Pac fanatics who went on social media to praise his win over Thurman, they do this after every victory making him out to be the greatest boxer of all time.
When Pacquiao loses they make excuses or are nowhere to be seen.
Pacquiao might fight anywhere from March to May of 2020, but who will he choose to face next?
Danny Garcia and Mikey Garcia are both tied up with fights, Errol Spence probably won’t fight until June or July just so his body recovers mentally and physically from the accident.
I have a gut feeling he will fight someone like Robert ‘The Ghost’ Guerrero next.
Pacquiao won’t fight his former sparring partner Shawn Porter because he could likely lose after seeing the ferocious pressure Porter applied to Spence. Porter who is a different fighter from the time he sparred Pacquiao will be too big and strong.
If Jeff Horn was able to maul little old Pacquiao what more would Porter do if they fight? I could see Roach throwing the towel in that fight.
I think Guerrero is the next opponent because Pacquiao’s team is not going to put him in there with any world beater unless they get massive amounts of money and some type of catchweight advantage. Team Pacquiao will claim Guerrero and Pacquiao have history since they sparred many years ago when both were featherweights, and trainer Freddie Roach will claim its a good fight because Guerrero is on a three fight win streak.
In reality its a safe fight and par for the course when it comes to Manny Pacquiao. There is always a catch to why he fights someone, and this is a winnable fight that casual fans will gobble up and continue to claim Pacquiao is a beast at 41 and that Floyd Mayweather is running scared from a rematch.
The truth is Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t need to give Pacquiao a rematch because he already beat him by wide scorecards. The fight with Mayweather wasn’t even competitive. So now Pacquiao is once again fighting Mayweather’s leftovers in Guerrero.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
