It's been three years since Errol Spence was wiped out by Terence Crawford in the undisputed world welterweight title fight and as he readies to head to Australia and fight Tim Tszyu on July 26h there, he is admitting that he was close to retiring completely.
Former unified world welterweight champ Errol Spence is returning to the ring later this month after a three year layoff. And, while he says he's motivated to fight Australian contender Tim Tszyu there, he admits he's been contemplating retirement.
Spence joined us on the "Fight Freaks Unite Recap Podcast" off the weekend and spoke one on one with insider Dan Rafael about his return from the ring off a 36 month hiatus.
You can hear the full conversation by clicking play below,
"Definitely. It's definitely been back and forth (retirement). One morning I wake up super motivated going to the gym. Then, take a few days (away) from the gym. Then, I'd be like- 'nah, I'm done.' I kept going back and forth, back and forth. And then, one day it just clicked. And, I've been going to the gym ever since."
Dan asked about having to make that commitment,
"I'm not gonna like. Things were hurting (getting back into training) that weren't hurting before. I guess, I don't know if it's old age.... a lot of sore was sore that I wasn't use to. It was a lot of hard work coming back."
Well, he is back and ready to fight at the heaviest he's been, 158 lb. "catchweight" limit, in this matchup with Tszyu.
Spence (28-1, 22 KOs), who successfully defended his 147-pound titles against the likes of Mikey Garcia and Shawn Porter, has been out of the ring since his one-sided defeat to Terence Crawford. The lengthy inactivity makes the task of traveling to Australia to face Tim Tszyu an even steeper challenge.
"I wanted somebody tough, somebody that can fight, somebody that's gonna make me train 100%. You know, focus and make me take it (the challenge) 100% serious... of the list of names, Tim Tszyu was that guy."
As for Tszyu,27-3, 18 KOs, he tuned up for this fight with a 10-round unanimous decision over Denis Nurja in Australia. Before that, Tszyu had been based in the United States, where he trained in pursuit of bigger opportunities and more lucrative paydays. However, his run at the elite level has been difficult. Over the past two years, he suffered world title defeats to Sebastian Fundora and Bakhram Murtazaliev, leaving him looking to rebuild his career.
Tszyu has also tactically changed to a new trainer in former Aussie world champ Jeff Fenech and is now back living and training in Australia.
You can see them training this weekend here in this social media clip,
Now, we see how big the home country advantage will be for him vs. the obstacle for Spence.
