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By: Hans Themistode
With nine years as a professional under his belt, Errol Spence Jr. can see right through the bullshit.
Just a few weeks ago, former eight-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao, made serious headlines when he announced that he would be taking on Spence Jr. on August 21st, in Las Vegas, Nevada. While half of the boxing world was marking their calendar, the other half wondered what Terence Crawford would do next.
According to promoter Bob Arum, a deal between Crawford and Pacquiao was on the verge of becoming a reality. However, due to a lack of funding, Arum revealed that their deal fell apart. For a number of years now, Arum has regurgitated the same thing over and over again regarding a matchup between the pair. In the mind of Spence Jr., he believes Arum is simply full of it.
“Terence Crawford has been trying to get that fight for how many years now?” Questioned Spence Jr. during an interview with Barbershop Conversations. “It’s excuses after excuses that Bob comes up with. Bob talks a lot of shit saying all of these things but Al (Haymon) gets the job done. I told (Haymon) I wanted the fight and it worked out in my favor.”
Spence Jr., 31, is fresh off a one-sided beating against former two-division champion Danny Garcia in December of 2020. For the Dallas native, it was his first fight since getting into a horrific car wreck in October of 2019. Any thoughts that Spence Jr. wouldn’t be the same were quickly put to bed with his performance.
As for Pacquiao, even at the age of 40, he proved that he could still compete with the best that the division has to offer. In July of 2019, he floored former unified champion Keith Thurman in the first round of their contest before ultimately taking home a close split decision victory.
Since then, Pacquiao has remained on the sidelines. But, even at the age of 42, he stated on numerous occasions that he was willing to face the likes of Crawford and Spence Jr. Despite his words, Arum has always believed that Pacquiao wasn’t too keen on facing Crawford. That thought, however, is anything but true in the mind of Spence Jr. The current unified champion solely believes that Arum has to get his affairs in order before anything else.
“Pacquiao doesn’t care who he fights. Pacquiao is a warrior. Pacquiao is a guy who will fight anybody. If the money is right and everything is lined up correctly, Pacquiao would have fought [Crawford]. But it didn’t line up that way for whatever reason. I just say ‘blame Bob’ because he’s the guy that’s orchestrating it all, and it didn’t happen in their favor.”
