"That's the fighters that I would like to fight and step in with now, like guys like Evander Holyfield used to do and stuff like that. He was 13-14 fights in fighting top level fighters and contenders. But my manager told me to be patient and that everything is going to happen in due time, so I guess I might fight some on-their-way-out contenders or some contenders before I get to that elite championship level where I fight top level guys. Right now, I'm still paying my dues and still getting in the rankings. I think once I break into the top 10, top 15, or something like that, I could fight these top guys. Right now, my main focus is to get in the rankings so I could fight these guys," stated undefeated welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr., who talked about his recent victory, his future plans, and much more. Check it out!
PC: Congratulations on a very dominant performance. How do you feel you performed?
ES: I feel like I did some great things in there. I was able to showcase my skills in this fight. I landed 70% of my power punches, so I showed a lot of different tools I have and got to show a lot of my arsenal, like the way I throw punches and block punches and counter punching. I showed a lot of different things in there.
PC: You are naturally a good body puncher. That's where it all started for you and then you started getting it going upstairs. At what point did you sense it was gonna be the kind of fight where you could show off your skills?
ES: I felt good before the fight when I was working on the mitts. I felt real strong. When I got in there and he threw like a lazy...I wanna say right hand, and I came back and hit him with a 1-2; a counter 1-2. I just felt I seen his punches coming. He was throwing wild punches. They were hard, but they were wild and I saw them coming, so I knew it was going to be a good night for me. I saw I could counter his shots and go to his body easy because his punches were wide and I could just come down the middle. He was a slow opponent and I could see his punches coming.
PC: In any sport, it's always said that in the pro ranks, the game moves so much faster. What do you feel you've done to slow the game down for you because your poise is definitely one of your strong suits?
ES: I actually think pro boxing is slower than the amateurs. In the amateurs, you only had 2-minute rounds and a lot of times, it was only 4 rounds for 2 minutes. It was an insane pace as soon as you get in there. No feeling out or nothing; you're just throwing punches. So the amateurs is way faster. In the pros, you have longer rounds, so you can feel your opponent out in the early rounds and you still have time to catch up. I feel like the pro game is a lot slower and that kind of fits my style more because I'm a thinker and I like to see my opponents tendencies in the first few rounds and break them down from there.
PC: At one point, you had him fighting with his hands around his midsection.
ES: Ah, definitely. They say you go to the body and it will open up the head. That's basically what I was doing because he had the high guard, so I was just throwing to the body. When I started breaking down his body, he lowered his hands to protect that area and that opened up the punches to the head. But I've always been a body puncher and I'm always gonna invest to the body to break 'em down and try to stop my opponents in the later rounds.
PC: He ate a lot of shots from you. Did it surprise you how tough he was?
ES: Ah, definitely man. He took a lot of shots. I mean, I drop guys in sparring with 16 oz. gloves and hurt guys and stuff like that, so to see him take them kind of punches in 10 oz. gloves and he was taking them well, I was like, "Man, this dude can take a punch." Like one instance in the 3rd round, I was gonna slow down a little bit because I was like, "Alright, I can't stop him." But it was just too many openings, so I was really just forced to throw punches because I seen so many openings when he would throw punches. I was forced to throw punches because I just took the shots that was open.
PC: I was surprised his corner didn't step in.
ES: Yeah! I think the corner was hoping that because I'm a young fighter, that I was gonna get tired throwing all them punches. In the 2nd round, I threw like 110 punches or something like that. I was throwing a lot of punches, so I guess they thought I was gonna get tired in the later rounds, but I kept up the pace. That's what I train for and I just kept up the pace. I think that surprised them a lot.
PC: Was it tough to train through the holidays for this fight?
ES: It wasn't that tough. I ate on Thanksgiving (laughing), I'm not gonna lie. I couldn't help it, but it wasn't tough at all. I make weight pretty easy. And this fight was at a catchweight, so it made it a little easier. So I ate a lil' turkey and dressing.
PC: Is it getting frustrating for you to have these last-minute changes in opponents?
ES: Sometimes it gets frustrating, but I try not to think about it. I just realize that I just turned pro and it comes with the territory. Knowing later on when I get these 10-round fights with more notable names, like Ronald Cruz, I'll have more notice because I will know who I'm fighting and I can train for a specific guy instead of the last-minute replacements and not knowing who I'm fighting. But it comes with the territory at this stage in my career.
PC: You were saying you're ready for guys like Khan and Thurman. Is that the kind of fights you want next or was the adrenaline flowing?
ES: That's the fighters that I would like to fight and step in with now, like guys like Evander Holyfield used to do and stuff like that. He was 13-14 fights in fighting top level fighters and contenders. But my manager told me to be patient and that everything is going to happen in due time, so I guess I might fight some on-their-way-out contenders or some contenders before I get to that elite championship level where I fight top level guys. Right now, I'm still paying my dues and still getting in the rankings. I think once I break into the top 10, top 15, or something like that, I could fight these top guys. Right now, my main focus is to get in the rankings so I could fight these guys.
PC: Tell us a little bit about the Black Out Boxing that you took part of with Andre Berto, The Judah Brothers and Shawn Porter.
ES: It's something that Berto came up with. It's just awareness about the bad apple police officers. Not all police officers are bad. It's just that bunch that is abusing their power with no consequences against them. These guys that are abusing their power are getting off. We just wanna bring awareness and keep the movement going. As athletes, we gotta speak up and talk about these things because people look up to us because we're on TV and stuff like that, so we have a bigger voice than most people.
PC: You would think someone like a fighter, if anyone, would abuse their will and power and impose themselves on people in the street, but you rarely hear one of you guys getting into any street altercations.
ES: Definitely. When you have confidence in your abilities, you don't have to go around and do these type of things because you got that confidence. A lot of these guys just have a gun and a badge and they gonna use it because they know there are no consequences to it. These guys can't fight and these dudes used to get picked on and stuff like that; just a bunch of different stuff. You see people just abusing their power. It's been going on, but you're seeing it a lot now because of cell phones and street cameras. Everybody got a cell phone and every phone has a camera. They recording that stuff now and putting it on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Worldstar. You seeing all the stuff that's happening.
PC: For sure. Well man, great fight again. Best of luck to you next year I look forward to seeing you back in there. Is there anything else you want to say?
ES: Shout out to you for talking to me and shout out to everybody who supported me and watched me fight. I appreciate it. I'm gonna have a lot more great performances in 2015, so be on the lookout for me. I'm not ducking nobody. I'm willing to fight the best once I get to the top!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]