It has been over six months since former unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr (28-1, 22 KOs) lost via a ninth-round TKO to the current undisputed champion, Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs). While initially not making any excuses for his loss to Crawford and stating that he was in peak condition during the fight, Spence now believes there was a possible reason behind his loss.
‘The Big Fish’ Spence recently underwent surgery to treat the cataract in his eye, which he states was long overdue. After the surgery, he posted a series of stories giving his fans an update on the surgery. Moreover, he mentioned that his eye condition was the reason why he was unable to defend himself against Crawford efficiently.
“Had successful cataract surgery today! That explains why I got hit with so many jabs and hooks lately and have been overdue since before the Crawford fight,” Spence wrote. “Still a great performance by Bro. No more excuses after this fight, though. The champ is back!”
Even though it is currently unknown if the condition played a major role in his loss, it has certainly set the boxing community abuzz.
It is worth mentioning that this was not the first time an issue had impeded Spence’s fights. A retinal tear caused him to back out of his fight against Manny Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KOs) with barely days to spare.
“I’m grateful that I caught it. … It’s a career-ending injury for a lot of other boxers. A lot of them don’t get checked up,”Spence said in an interview with ESPN in 2021. “Even if this would have happened early in training camp, I would have still tried to spar and things like that. And it probably would have damaged it permanently.”
Spence added that he believes that the car crash he was involved in in 2019 might have caused the retinal injury.
“It takes a few years out”
The boxing world has been discussing a potential rematch between Spence and Crawford. However, former undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins (55-8-2, 32 KOs) feels that Spence might take a step back after the punishment he received.
“Look who he beat, what he did to Spence, and how he did it. That’s three fights to me, and it took four fights out of Spence, right? Did you see that?” he said. “See, I’m a fighter, so I can tell you when you get punished like that, it takes a few years out. You don’t see the years right now, but it sort of takes something out of that person going forward.”
Hopkins further mentioned that Spence has not stepped inside the ring after losing to Crawford and that he should be wary about going for a rematch.
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