Errol Spence

Amateur career

Spence won the 2011 U.S. National Champion at Welterweight at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which he had also won in 2009 and 2010.

On August 3, 2012 Errol won his fight against Vikas Krishan Yadav after the original result was overturned and made it to the quarterfinals of the London Olympic Games.

Spence lost in the quarter finals of the 2012 London Olympics to Andrey Zamkovoy and turned professional shortly afterwards.

Early career

On November 9, 2012 a 22 year old Spence made his professional debut at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California in a scheduled 4 round bout against 19 year old Jonathan Garcia. Spence knocked Garcia down and out in the 3rd round. In December 2012, Spence knocked out Richard Andrews at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California, which was part of undercard for Amir Khan's comeback fight against Carlos Molina.

Spence fought eight times in 2013, being victorious in all of them, winning six inside the distance. He was taken the eight round distance in October by Emmanuel Lartei Lartey, a rather one-sided fight which saw the judges score the fight 79-73, 79-73, 79-73 all in favor of Spence. By the end of 2013, Spence had won all of his 10 professional fights, with 8 inside the distance.

Spence made his Showtime television debut on June 27, 2014 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas in a 10 round fight against Ronald Cruz. Spence was taken the distance and won a lop sided decision with all three judges scoring the fight 100-90 in favour Spence.

On December 13, 2014, Spence beat Javier Castro by TKO in the 5th round at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada marking one of his best performances to date.

Rising up the ranks

On April 11, 2015, Spence defeated Samuel Vargas by TKO in Round 4 of 10 in a Premier Boxing Champions fight card at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, bringing his record to 16-0. On June 20, Spence defeated Phil Lo Greco (26-1, 14 KOs) via 3rd-round TKO at the MGM Grand Arena.

Spence next fought 3 months at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto on the undercard of Stevenson-Karpency against Chris van Heerden. The referee stopped the fight in round 8, after Spence knocked down van Heerden twice in round 7 to win the IBF International Welterweight title. On November 28, Spence defeated Mexican Alejandro Barrera via 5th-round TKO at The Bomb Factory in Dallas. This was an IBF voluntary welterweight eliminator for the number 2 spot. Spence was ahead on all three judges scorecards (40-36, 3 times).

Spence was named 2015 ESPN.com prospect of the year.

Spence vs. Algieri

On March 10, 2016 it was announced that Spence would fight former light welterweight titlist Chris Algieri (21-2, 8 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on April 16, his biggest fight to date. The fight was scheduled for 10 rounds. In front of a pro Algieri 7,628 crowd, Spence became the first boxer to stop Algieri inside the distance. Spence did what Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan could not do before him. This was also a seventh straight knockout. After the bout Spence claimed he was the mandatory for Kell Brook's IBF World title saying "Kell Brook knows what time it is. We got to get in the ring and fight.". IBF later stated that Spence must have a final eliminator before he is declared mandatory challenger. The end came when Spence delivered a left hook to Algieri’s face. The hard shot sent Algieri straight to the canvas and referee Benjy Esteves didn’t hesitate to stop the fight. For the fight, Spence earned $225,000 whilst Algieri earned $325,000. CompuBox punch statistics showed that Spence landed 96 of 311 punches (31%), whereas Algieri landed 36 of 114 thrown (32%). The fight averaged 1.482 million viewers on NBC.

Spence vs. Bundu

On May 16, 2016, Spence Jr. denied that his team turned down a fight against Brook, contrary to the notion made by Eddie Hearn. Spence mentioned that the International Boxing Federation has ordered him to fight IBF #3 Konstantin Ponomarev (30-0, 13 KOs) in order to become the mandatory challenger to Brook. Although there were no agreements to fight, on June 9, it was announced that Ponomarev had injured his hand, forcing him out of the eliminator. Instead, it was confirmed that Spence Jr. would fight IBF #7 Leonard Bundu (33-1-2, 12 KOs) in the eliminator on August 21 at the Ford Amphitheater at the Coney Island Boardwalk in Brooklyn on a special Sunday night edition of Premier Boxing Champions on NBC in prime time.

Spence focused on breaking down Bundu from the start. After five one-sided rounds, Spence backed Bundu against the ropes and connected with an uppercut that dropped Bundu. Referee Johnny Callas waved off the fight without starting a count. The fight drew 4.8 million viewers on NBC and peaked at 6.34 million. This was the highest TV audience for boxing in over 10 years in the United States. After the fight, Spence Jr. reiterated his desire of becoming IBF World champion stating, "I definitely want my shot at Kell Brook and his title, I want him next. If he vacates or gets stripped, then I'll fight for his vacant title. I've paid my dues."

Spence vs. Brook

In January 2017, Kell Brook and his team were in talks with Amir Khan over a potential fight, whilst also keeping the mandatory fight with Spence as second choice. During negotiations, Khan urged Brook to fight Spence first and eventually talks broke down between Brook and Khan. Brook's promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned talks were already ongoing with Spence's manager Al Haymon for a fight to take place possibly in the UK in May. Hearn received an extension from the IBF for negotiations between himself and TGB Promotions boss Tom Brown, as they were progressing. The purse bids for the fight was set for February 7 by the IBF. On February 1, Hearn claimed that Brook will be keeping his title and make the defense against Spence and that he had reached out to Spence's team, to no reply. He assumed that they wanted the fight to go to purse bids. Spence said that he had no problem travelling to the UK for the fight, regardless of negotiations. With a deal close to being reached a day before the purse bids, the IBF granted a week extension, pushing the purse bid back 7 days. On February 13, a deal was reached for the fight to take place in Sheffield on May 20, 2017. At a press conference at Bramall Lane, Sheffield on March 22, the fight was officially announced to take place on May 27, 2017 live on Sky Box Office in the UK and Showtime in the US.

In front of 27,000 fans in attendance, Spence dropped and eventually stopped Brook to win the IBF welterweight title after 11 rounds. In a fight were mostly power shots were landed. Spence threw combinations to the head and more to the body wearing down Brook. Brook did well working the counter, and landed his own shots to the body, but Spence came back with his own shots. In round 10, Spence, having Brook against the ropes unloaded some heavy power shots, which caused Brook to take a knee. Again in the round 11, before the fight was stopped, Brook motioned many times that he couldn't see through his left eye and voluntarily took a knee, again counting as a knockdown. The referee started the 10 count which Brook couldn't make, giving him back to back defeats and his first as a welterweight. At the time of stoppage, all three judges had Spence ahead on their scorecards (97-92, 96-93, 95-94). Although he won the fight, Spence admitted it was not his best performance, "I give myself a B-. I was a little bit off with my offence and defence, but I give Kell a lot of credit. This is what true champions do. You go anywhere to fight." Spence landed 246 of 633 punches thrown (39%) whilst Brook landed 136 of 442 (31%). The fight was shown in the afternoon in the US on Showtime and averaged 291,000 viewers, peaking at 337,000 viewers. This was considered low numbers, even for an afternoon showing, possibly due to it being a holiday weekend.