Glove2Face

This past Saturday night Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr (20W-0L-17KO’s) defeated Chris Algieri (21W-3L-8KO’s) by 5th round TKO in a fight that so many thought would be Spence’s toughest battle, but he seemed to have little to no problems at all. Now that Spence has dispatched of his so called “BIG TEST” what does it mean? Well, it depends on who you ask.

Prior to the fight, there were so many people clamoring to the thought of Algieri being strong enough to derail the so called “hype job” or at least giving him the toughest fight of his career, but now these same people have started discrediting Algieri, which lessens his victory that one would expect from someone that was expected to lose.

Now there are some people that claimed that Spence is literally “The Truth” and heir to Floyd Mayweather Jr’s throne, and now have made claims that this win has solidified this claim, and have made predictions that he will now go on to demolish the top welterweights… but lets take a look at what really happened.

Both sides of this coin is a little right, but a little delusional as well; and I say that because boxing fans are filled with emotions that is hard for them to suppress, which makes them say things that are not true, not even to them!

Let’s go back a little… Algieri was basically an unknown fighter until he defeated the hard hitting Ruslan Provodnikov, or when he defeated Emmanuel Taylor for the hardcore fans, but from there he landed his biggest two fights, and biggest paydays, against Manny Pacquio and Amir Khan, in which he made it to the end of both fights in a losing effort, although he was knocked down numerous times, which adds to his toughness persona. Does this make Algieri a great step up or test for Spence?

YES!!! But just a step up, not a calling for P4P greatness. I’m not saying that Spence won’t go on and dominate the other fighters in the division and become the top P4P fighter, but he has work to do to get there. In this fight he proved he can handle a different type of fighter, and he fought a fighter that is better than his previous competition, which I believe shows he is being brought along at a good rate.

Now can he get thrown in the pond with the heralded monsters of the division? Thurman, Porter, Brooks, Broner, Khan, Garcia, Vargas, and even Peterson. OR should he compete with the lower end welterweights to gain more experience? Rios, Guerrero, Molina, Alexander, or Berto.

To wrap this up, Algieri was not a bum, but he was not Super Macho Man that led you to fight Mike Tyson either (If you don’t get this reference, you’re either too young, or your childhood sucked!). We learned more about Spence, and he does seem to be evolving, but he needs to prove more before I label him a great, but he definitely could be on his way. I won’t label him a Roy Jones Jr (a proven HOF) or a Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (a known underachiever) before I see the rest of his story. I’m hoping he becomes great, but time will tell.