Errol Spence Jr. To Salvador Sanchez Connection: Robert Brizel Editorial
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Life in the fast lane. Some professional athletes think the speed ride never ends.
The late World Boxing Council World Featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez crashed his Porsche 928 in a truck at 3:30 A.M. on August 12, 1982, 160 miles north of Mexico City, Mexico, headed to his training camp, where he was preparing for a titular defense against Juan LaPorte.
Now World Welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. is in serious condition after wrecking his Ferrari in a one car accident in Dallas, Texas, putting the future of the golden welterweight division in the post-Floyd era in jeopardy.
Spence may recover from his facial injuries, but his boxing career has been put into serious doubt. This opens the door for Manny Pacquiao, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, and a host of other notables to take control of the division during Spence’ convalescence.
Spence, beyond Tyson Fury, Andy Ruiz and Deontay Wilder in the heavyweight division, was the highly promoted darling of the boxing. Claressa Shields was also hyped in women’s boxing, a status now in doubt when her bout last week was cancelled after her opponent’s trainer was sucker punched and brain damaged as a result after the weight-in, forcing the cancellation of her female middleweight title bout. Boxing is in a freefall now, and no end is in sight. Is it cultural? Is it stupidity? Or, it is plain madness?
People (boxers included, and their respective entourages) are responsible for maintaining responsible behavior, both their own behavior, as well as those surrounding them. If they cannot, the sport of boxing has no place for them, and no business promoting them either.
It is a question of ethics. Boxing needs good publicity, like football and any other contact sport. If Spence cannot put himself together, it is just another sparkling example of everything in professional boxing supposed to go so write which has gone so horribly wrong. Tyson Fury overcame substance abuse. Some boxers never do. What was the cause of Spence’s accident? What were the factors surrounding it? No information has been forthcoming, but now is the time for Errol Spence Jr. to look within. His life and future are at stake, boxing or otherwise. If Pro boxing cannot put itself together, MMA, baseball, basketball, football, soccer and other sports will continue to surpass boxing in popularity.
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