With just days away from the perhaps the biggest fight of his career, Errol Spence Jr. spoke to the media about his upcoming IBF welterweight title defense.
Spence, as well as former WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez, spoke to the media in a conference call to talk about their respective fights on the March 16 PBC pay-per-view card from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Representing J'Leon Love, Benavidez's opponent, on the call is Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe.
Originally, the conference call was set to also feature Mikey Garcia, Spence's opponent, but he never appeared on the conference call. A follow-up call with Garcia alongside former heavyweight title challenger Chris Arreola, who is going to fight on the FS1 prelim card, will take place at a later date.
Below is a Twitter thread compiled by Fightful lead boxing reporter Carlos Toro of highlights from the conference call.
Here on the #SpenceGarcia media conference call set to start any minute now.
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
Richard Schaefer starting off the conference call and said this #SpenceGarcia main card is about as good as he can remember from top to bottom.
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
Richard Schaefer puts over Fox's commitment to marketing the #SpenceGarcia fight and expects a big PPV audience.
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
Richard Schaefer says he believes Luis Nery is the best bantamweight in the world. #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe is here on the call to introduce J'Leon Love who is fighting David Benavidez on the #SpenceGarcia PPV card on March 16.
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
David Benavidez is now on the call. He says he has been in training camp for the past three months and expects a spectacular knockout against J'Leon Love #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
I asked David Benavidez if he still sees himself as the WBC super middleweight champion. His response: I still see myself as the WBC champion. No one has beating me for the belt. I plan to go after Anthony Dirrell for the WBC title but my focus is on J'Leon Love on March 16.
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
I also asked Leonard Ellerbe if he has seen J'Leon Love learn something from the loss to Peter Quillin last year. Ellerbe told me that Love was going through a lot in his fight, hinted that he wasn't fully focused, but wasn't making excuses for him. #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
David Benavidez said he doesn't really focus on the audience or venue, but instead on his opponent who is J'Leon Love on March 16 #SpenceGarcia.
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
David Benavidez said he is comfortable with fighting at 168 pounds, but would be open to moving up to 175 pounds for the right fight and opportunity. #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
David Benavidez said it wasn't a good feeling losing his WBC super middleweight title after failing a drug test last year, but it made him hungrier to win back the title #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
David Benavidez said March 16 against J'Leon Love will be one of the biggest fights of his career. The fight is taking place in the co-main event of #SpenceGarcia at AT&T Stadium.
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
David Benavidez doubled down on saying he wants to face WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell after this fight against J'Leon Love and maybe have a unification fight against IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
The #SpenceGarcia portion of the conference call has begun. Richard Schaefer said this fight will be a coronation of boxing's next pound-for-pound king.
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
Errol Spence Jr. says he is not paying attention to boxing pundits picking Mikey Garcia to win more often compared to when the fight was announced. #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
Errol Spence Jr. said he doesn't know if he would have taken the fight against Mikey Garcia on March 16 if the fight didn't take place at AT&T Stadium #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
Errol Spence Jr. said training camp is going well and that he respects Mikey Garcia for taking the fight against Spence for the IBF welterweight title on March 16 #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
Guess Mikey Garcia is a no-show on this conference call after all. #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
Richard Schaefer said there will be a separate conference call now with Mikey Garcia and Chris Arreola on Monday to make up for the fact that Mikey was not available for this call. #SpenceGarcia
— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) March 7, 2019
You can listen to what Benavidez and Ellerbe told Fightful about the fight in the following videos below.
