Errol Spence

Early life

Errol Spence Jr. was born on March 3, 1990, in Long Island, New York, to Errol Spence Sr. and Debra Spence. He was raised in Desoto, Texas. Spence wanted to become a Dallas Cowboys football star when he was young. During sophomore year of high school, Errol was brought to a boxing gym by his father to keep him out of trouble. After only 2 weeks of training, Spence won the Dallas Silver Gloves tournament .

Amateur career

Spence took up boxing at the age of 15. In 2009, Spence won the U.S. National Golden Gloves, and also won three consecutive national amateur welterweight championships from 2009 to 2011, all in the welterweight division. Spence reached the quarter-finals at the 2011 World Championships, losing to Serik Sapiyev.

Spence lost in the quarter finals of the 2012 London Olympics to Russia's Andrey Zamkovoy and turned professional shortly afterwards.

He ended his amateur career with a record of 135–12.

Professional career

Early career

On 9 November 2012, a 22 year old Spence made his professional debut at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California in a scheduled 4 round bout against 19 year old Jonathan Garcia. Spence knocked Garcia down and out in the 3rd round. In December 2012, Spence knocked out Richard Andrews at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California, which was part of undercard for Amir Khan's comeback fight against Carlos Molina.

Spence fought eight times in 2013, being victorious in all of them, winning six inside the distance. He was taken the distance in an eight-round bout in October by Emmanuel Lartei Lartey. The fight was rather one-sided, with all judges scoring the fight 79–73 in favor of Spence. By the end of 2013, Spence had won all of his 10 professional fights, 8 of them by way of knockout.

Spence made his Showtime television debut on 27 June 2014 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas in a 10-round fight against Ronald Cruz. Spence was taken the distance and won a shutout unanimous decision.

On 13 December 2014, Spence beat Javier Castro by TKO in the 5th round at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Rise up the ranks

On 11 April 2015, Spence defeated Samuel Vargas by TKO in Round 4 of 10 in a Premier Boxing Champions fight card at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, bringing his record to 16–0. On May 16, it was announced that Spence would feature on the undercard of Shawn Porter vs. Adrien Broner on June 20 at the MGM Grand Arena. Spence defeated Phil Lo Greco (26–1, 14 KOs) via 3rd-round TKO. Spence was originally scheduled to fight Roberto García. García backed out of the fight three days before the card due to weight issues. Spence landed 73 of 142 punched thrown (51%) and Lo Greco landed 19 of 132 (14%).

Spence next fought on the undercard of Stevenson-Karpency against Chris van Heerden at the Ricoh Coliseum. The referee stopped the fight in round 8, after Spence knocked down van Heerden twice in round 7.

In October 2015 it was announced that Spence would fight at The Bomb Factory in Dallas on November 28 against Mexican boxer Alejandro Barrera (28–2, 18 KOs). Spence defeated Barrera via 5th-round TKO. This was an IBF eliminator for the number 2 spot in their welterweight contender rankings. Spence was ahead on all three judges scorecards (40–36, 3 times).

Spence was named 2015 ESPN.com prospect of the year.

On 10 March 2016, it was announced that Spence would fight former light welterweight titlist Chris Algieri at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on 16 April, his biggest fight to date. The fight was scheduled for 10 rounds. In front of a pro-Algieri 7,628 crowd, Spence became the first boxer to stop Algieri. This was Spence's seventh straight knockout. The end came when Spence delivered a left hook to Algieri's face. The hard shot sent Algieri straight to the canvas and referee Benjy Esteves waived the count. After the bout, Spence said "Kell Brook knows what time it is. We got to get in the ring and fight.". IBF later stated that Spence must have a final eliminator before he is declared mandatory challenger. For the fight, Spence earned $225,000 whilst Algieri earned $325,000. CompuBox punch statistics showed that Spence landed 96 of 311 punches (31%), whereas Algieri landed 36 of 114 thrown (32%). The fight averaged 1.482 million viewers on NBC.

On 16 May 2016, Spence denied that his team turned down a fight against Brook, which had been previously insinuated by Eddie Hearn, Brook's promoter. Spence said that the IBF had ordered him to fight their #3 contender Konstantin Ponomarev in order to become the mandatory challenger to Brook. Although there were no agreements to fight, on June 9, Ponomarev injured his hand, forcing him out of the eliminator. Instead, it was confirmed that Spence Jr. would fight IBF #7 Leonard Bundu (33–1–2, 12 KOs) in the eliminator on August 21 at the Ford Amphitheater. The fight would be aired on a Sunday night edition of Premier Boxing Champions on NBC.

IBF welterweight champion

In January 2017, IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook and his team were in talks with Amir Khan over a potential fight, whilst also keeping the mandatory fight with Spence as second choice. During negotiations, Khan urged Brook to fight Spence first and eventually talks broke down between Brook and Khan. Brook's promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned talks were already ongoing with Spence's manager Al Haymon for a fight to take place possibly in the UK in May. Hearn received an extension from the IBF for negotiations between himself and TGB Promotions boss Tom Brown, as they were progressing. The purse bid for the fight was set for 7 February by the IBF. On February 1, Hearn claimed that Brook will be keeping his title and make the defense against Spence and that he had reached out to Spence's team, to no reply. He assumed that they wanted the fight to go to purse bids. Spence said that he had no problem travelling to the UK for the fight, regardless of negotiations. With a deal close to being reached a day before the purse bids, the IBF granted a week extension, pushing the purse bid back 7 days. On February 13, a deal was reached for the fight to take place in Sheffield on 20 May 2017. At a press conference at Bramall Lane, Sheffield on March 22, the fight was officially announced to take place on May 27, 2017, live on Sky Box Office in the UK and Showtime in the US.

In front of 27,000 fans, Spence dropped and eventually stopped Brook to win the IBF welterweight title after 11 rounds. In a fight where mostly power shots were landed, Spence threw combinations to the head and to the body, gradually wearing down Brook. Brook did well working the counter and landed his own shots to the body. In round 10, Spence cornered Brook against the ropes and unloaded some heavy power shots, which caused Brook to take a knee. In round 11, Brook motioned many times that he couldn't see through his left eye and voluntarily took a knee. The referee started the 10 count, which Brook was unable to beat, giving him back-to-back defeats and his first as a welterweight. At the time of stoppage, all three judges had Spence ahead on their scorecards (97–92, 96–93, 95–94). Although he won the fight, Spence admitted it was not his best performance, "I give myself a B−. I was a little bit off with my offense and defense, but I give Kell a lot of credit. This is what true champions do. You go anywhere to fight." Spence landed 246 of 633 punches thrown (39%) while Brook landed 136 of 442 (31%). The fight was broadcast in the afternoon in the US on Showtime and averaged 291,000 viewers, peaking at 337,000 viewers. These were considered low numbers, even for an afternoon showing, possibly due to it being a holiday weekend. For the fight, Spence earned around £1 million and Brook earned a guaranteed £3 million.

Unified welterweight champion

Spence fought two-time welterweight world champion Shawn Porter on September 28, 2019, in a unification bout with the IBF and WBC welterweight titles on the line. Porter tried to rough up Spence from the get go, knowing Spence is the superior boxer, which made for an intriguing and an action-packed fight. Spence knocked Porter down in the eleventh round en route to a split decision victory, with the judges scoring it 116–111, 116–111, 112–115. It was arguably a fight of the year candidate.

In his first fight since crashing his car in October 2019, Spence fought former two-weight world champion Danny Garcia on December 5, 2020 (postponed from November 21st), on PPV at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas with Spence's IBF and WBC welterweight titles on the line. Garcia was ranked #2 by the WBC and #6 by The Ring at welterweight. He was awarded a unanimous decision victory with scores of 116–112, 116-112 and 117–111, and retained his titles.

On May 21, 2021, eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao made the unexpected announcement on his social media that he and Spence would meet in the ring on August 21 in Las Vegas to face each other on Fox PPV. PBC and Fox confirmed the news, and it was reported that both men have signed contracts to face each other. The two men had previously already met more than two years prior on March 16, 2019, in the ring following Spence's unanimous decision victory over Mikey Garcia in Arlington, Texas, when both Pacquiao and Spence indicated they would relish the chance to fight each other. On June 23, the venue was officially announced as the T-Mobile Arena. However, on August 10, Spence was forced to pull out, after suffering a retinal tear to his left eye. He was replaced by Yordenis Ugás, with Ugás' WBA (Super) welterweight title being on the line.

After successfully defending his title against Pacquiao, Ugás petitioned the WBA for a special permit to bypass a mandatory defense against Eimantas Stanionis in order to face Spence in a title unification bout. The petition was denied by the WBA on October 20, 2021, who stated: "...we are in special circumstances to resolve extraordinary situations, such as the champion reduction in every division to have only one champion". Accordingly, Ugás and Stanionis were given a 30-day period to negotiate the terms of their bout. As they were unable to come to terms, a purse bid was ordered for December 9, with a minimal bid of $200,000. The winning bid would be split 75/25 in favor of Ugas as the reigning titlist. On December 19, 2021, WBA President Gilberto J. Mendoza has confirmed that the Spence-Ugas was approved as Stanionis was willing to step aside. The unification bout was officially announced on February 8, 2022. It was scheduled to headline a Showtime pay per view card on April 16, which will take place at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Spence won the fight by a tenth-round technical knockout. The fight was stopped on the advice of the ringside physician, due to Ugas’ severely swollen right eye. Spence was leading on all three of the judges' scorecards at the time of the stoppage, with scores of 88–82, 88–82 and 88–83. Spence landed more total punches (216 to 96) and more power punches (192 to 77) than Ugas.

Super welterweight

In August 2025, Jermell Charlo posted an image depicting a lion consuming a shark, representing his nickname "the lion" and Spence's nickname "the shark." This imagery suggested a possible matchup between the two, as both athletes aimed to rebound from their recent defeats. The prospect of this fight became more compelling following Spence's separation from trainer Derrick James, which resulted from a disagreement concerning compensation. Jacob Spence, the cousin of Errol, issued a caution to Charlo concerning their prospective fight. He stated, "We could do him worse than Canelo did." Earlier in 2025, Spence was in negotiations with WBC super-welterweight champion Sebastian Fundora, but the discussions did not reach a conclusion due to disagreements. According to Mike Coppinger, on September 10, the two teams were in talks to fight in 2026.

After a three-year layoff, Spence returned to the ring against Tim Tszyu on July 26, 2026, in Australia.

Spence lost to Tim Tszyu by unanimous decision.

Retirement

During his post-fight interview, Spence announced his retirement from professional boxing, stating that he was leaving the sport with his health, financial security, and family intact. He retired with a professional record of 28 wins (22 by knockout) and 2 losses, ending a career that included unified WBC, IBF, and WBA (Super) welterweight titles.

Personal life

Errol Spence Jr. is of Jamaican descent through his father and African-American descent through his mother. He was born on Long Island, New York, but has spent the majority of his life living in Dallas, Texas. He is the father of two daughters and a son.

Car crash

Spence was involved in a single-vehicle accident at 2:53 AM on October 10, 2019, in his hometown of Dallas, Texas, and was hospitalized in the intensive care unit. According to Dallas police, Spence's Ferrari 488 Spider was "traveling at a high rate of speed" and then "veered left over the center median onto the southbound lanes and flipped multiple times, ejecting the driver, who was not wearing a seatbelt." Spence sustained facial lacerations, but no broken bones. Earlier in the night, he had been drinking alcohol. He was released from the hospital six days later and was charged with a DWI, a class-B misdemeanor by the Dallas Police Department. Spence posted on Instagram "No broken bones I'm a savage!!" but deleted this post after receiving backlash, as fans stated he was lucky to be alive and noted that he could have seriously hurt others due to his drunk driving. Spence avoided jail time and received probation.

Other vehicular incidents

In January 2020, just three months after his October car crash, Spence was involved in another car accident. Spence told Kate Abdo in an interview in April 2022 that he was in his G-Wagon when another car crashed into him from behind. He was subsequently dropped by his insurance company.

In December 2022 Spence was involved in another car accident when a 14-year old stole his parents' car and while running a red light crashed head on into Spence's vehicle. Although Spence's car was damaged both parties walked away from the accident relatively unscathed, with Spence complaining only of a leg injury.

Titles in boxing

Major world titles

WBA (Super) welterweight champion (147 lbs)

WBC welterweight champion (147 lbs)

IBF welterweight champion (147 lbs)

Honorary titles

WBC Diamond welterweight champion

WBC Health Care Hero champion