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| Date | March 16, 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | IBF welterweight title | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spence defeated Garcia by unanimous decision | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Errol Spence Jr. vs. Mikey Garcia was a professional boxing match contested on March 16, 2019, for the IBF welterweight championship. [1]
Since winning the IBF welterweight title against against Kell Brook, Errol Spence Jr. had made two stoppage defences against Lamont Peterson and Carlos Ocampo. He ranked by both Ring magazine and TBRB as the best welterweight in the world.
After successfully unifying the WBC and IBF lightweight titles in against Robert Easter Jr. July 2018, Mikey Garcia reiterated his desire to fight Spence Jr. by the end of 2018. Spence, who was sat ringside also admitted the fight was too big to turn down and would not be hard to make. [2] [3] [4]
In October 2018, it was reported that negotiations between Spence and Garcia were progressing, with the fight likely to take place in February 2019 on Showtime PPV. [5] On October 30, Garcia vacated his IBF lightweight title and the purse bid for the potential Richard Commey fight was cancelled. [6] On November 13, PBC made an official announcement that the fight between Spence and Garcia would take place at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on March 16, 2019, to be broadcast by FOX PPV. [7] [8] [9] [10] This would be the first PPV headliner for both Spence and Garcia. Spence was a 1/4 favourite. [11]
Spence would completely outclass and dominate Garcia, using his superior reach to constantly land jabs to the head and body from a distance, landing 108 over the course of the fight. Garcia would try to close the distance, but with Spence's weight and height advantage, he was able to completely dominate Garcia even in the pocket. In rounds 8 and 9, Spence landed over 100 punches in two rounds, constantly using lead hooks and uppercuts on the increasing backing up Garcia. Despite being dominated Garcia would show heart and made it to the final bell. All three judges would score every round for Spence with one giving the 11th as a 10–8 round, with scorecards reading 120–107, 120–108 and 120–108. [12] [13] [14]
After the fight, Spence was joined in the ring by eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao. Both stated that they would love to fight each other next. [15] [16] [17] Garcia would express no regrets for taking the fight with Spence saying "In order to leave a lasting impression, to cement your name, you have to go after the biggest challenges and the biggest fights, if I want to protect the record and just fight contenders, make a quick paycheck and keep racking up wins, that's not going to be something to be remembered. I don't want that. I made it a goal to fight the biggest fights and take the biggest challenges so that people can appreciate who I am as a fighter, and that's why I took on this fight. I wanted to establish that legacy. I was trying to be great. That's what a world champion needs to be doing, giving the greatest fights available." [18]
Confirmed bouts: [19]
| Country | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
 Panama | Telemetro |
 United Kingdom | ITV |
 United States | FOX Sports |
The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO).
Lamont Peterson is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2019. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the IBF light welterweight title between 2011 and 2015, and the WBA (Regular) welterweight title in 2017.
Yordenis Ugas Hernández is a Cuban professional boxer. He held the WBA (Super) welterweight title from 2021 to April 2022, having previously held the WBA (Regular) title from 2020 until being elevated to Super champion. As an amateur, Ugás won a gold medal at the 2005 World Championships and bronze at the 2008 Olympics, both in the lightweight division.
Ezekiel "Kell" Brook is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2022. He held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) welterweight title from 2014 to 2017, and challenged once for a unified middleweight world title in 2016. At regional level, he held multiple welterweight titles, including the British welterweight title from 2008 to 2010. In May 2017, Brook was ranked as the world's best active welterweight by The Ring magazine.
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Miguel Angel Garcia Cortez, best known as Mikey Garcia, is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2006 to 2021. He held multiple world championships in four weight classes from featherweight to light welterweight, and challenged once for the IBF welterweight title.
Errol Spence Jr. is an American professional boxer. He is a former unified champion in the welterweight division, having held the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), and International Boxing Federation (IBF) titles between 2017 and 2023. As an amateur, in the welterweight division, he won three consecutive United States national championships and represented the U.S. at the 2012 Olympics, where he reached the quarter-finals. In 2015, Spence was named Prospect of the Year by ESPN.
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Teófimo Andrés López Rivera is an American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and Ring magazine light welterweight titles since 2023; previously he held the unified World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF), WBO, and Ring lightweight titles between 2019 and 2021. Lopez has also held the lineal championship at lightweight and light welterweight.
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Errol Spence Jr. vs. Yordenis Ugás was a professional boxing welterweight unification bout between WBC and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr., and WBA (Super) welterweight champion, Yordenis Ugás. The fight took place on April 16, 2022.
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Errol Spence Jr. vs. Terence Crawford, billed as Undefeated. Undisputed. Unprecedented., was a welterweight professional boxing match between unified WBA Super, WBC and IBF champion, Errol Spence Jr., and WBO champion, Terence Crawford. The fight took place on July 29, 2023 at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
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