Spence eager for Pacquiao but Roach doesn’t like idea

By Boxingnews24.com

By Raj Parmar: In the wake of Manny Pacquiao’s thrilling title victory over Keith Thurman, Errol Spence is very eager to step inside the ring with the boxing legend. Spence has a very big welterweight championship unification fight coming up on September 28 with fellow champion Shawn Porter.

If Spence is able to get past Porter, Errol has made it no secret that he would prefer Pacquiao as his next opponent. Spence feels that a victory over Manny would transition him from being seen as a great boxer into a mainstream superstar.

Spence has even gone on to say that fighting Manny would be bigger for him than taking on middleweight champion and arguably boxing’s current most popular fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Both fights would be huge box office hits and boxing fans would argue either way on which fight would be bigger for Spence.

If he beats Porter, Spence will be the only unified champion at welterweight and would be in a position to further unify the division against Manny who holds a belt as well. It is rare for a fighter to unify a division and if Spence can get three belts at welterweight his stock would definitely go through the roof.

A future matchup with Pacquiao may however have some trouble coming to fruition based on recent comments made by Manny’s trainer Freddie Roach. Speaking with the Manila Bulletin, Roach stated that he would be extremely reluctant to let Manny battle with two fighters in the welterweight division. The fighters he was referring to were Spence and the also undefeated champion Terrence Crawford.

Freddie referred to Spence and Crawford as killers in the ring and said it would not be wise for the aging Manny to take on any of them. After the Thurman fight Manny had trouble seeing clearly and Roach is keeping a very close watch on Manny’s health as he reaches the latter stages of his career.

Whether or not a Pacquiao fight is in his future, Spence is fully focused on his fight with Porter and needs to win that matchup to keep his momentum going. If he is able to take down Porter in impressive fashion, fans will definitely clamor for a Spence-Pacquiao fight for 2020 in order to further unify the belts of the welterweight division.