The huge welterweight unification bout between Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr. was only a few days away but shocking news came out that Spence had a retinal tear to his left eye and had to pull out of the fight and what would have been his biggest payday and chance to become a huge star.
I personally believe this is a blessing in disguise Spence because I didn’t see the fight ending well for the undefeated Texan. I think Spence got nervous heading into the fight, after seeing the 42-year-old Filipino boxing legend looking like a beast in training camp he got cold feet and realized this wasn’t a washed up fighter.
Pacquiao might have scared off Spence and leaked footage of Spence sparring online showed us he didn’t look great, he was getting lit up by his sparring partner who wasn’t even as half as fast as Manny Pacquiao.
I’m not saying the injury is fake, but the timing is suspect. Now Pacquiao is fighting Yordenis Ugas who the WBA elevated to super champ status over Pacquiao.
When I saw clips of Pacquiao training on YouTube, he was looking fresh like the two-year layoff helped his body heal up. He was throwing combos with devastating speed and power and not showing any sign of letting up. Also Pacquiao was hurting sparring partners and dropping them according to Freddie Roach.
Spence style was tailor made for Pacquiao. Spence is a slow, flat footed fighter who doesn’t have any slick boxing and stands in a straight line and uses the high guard as defense. Spence relies on his size and reach to bully opponents but he can also box from the outside and play it safe like he did with Mikey Garcia.
Pacquiao would have tested Spence’s chin. There is no way Spence with his high guard defense would be able to avoid someone like Pacquiao for all 12 rounds, Pac-Man would touch that chin and really do some damage.
There is no quit in Pacquiao and even if Spence won the fight he would have taken some serious damage.
So now we are left witt Pacquiao fighting slick Cuban boxer Ugas for the WBA belt that he was unjustly stripped of. Talk about a slap in the face to a legend who put his heart and soul into the sport and his inactivity was only because of the COVID-19 pandemic that basically shut down the entire globe and was completely out of his control.
Pacquiao is pissed off and he will take out all his frustration on Ugas and it won’t be pretty.
