Errol Spence Jr. went from DeSoto gyms to unified welterweight champion

Errol Spence Jr. was a southpaw from the Dallas suburbs who took the IBF welterweight title in Sheffield, added the WBC and WBA belts at home in Texas, and came within one fight of becoming undisputed. His career ran from 2012 to 2026, survived a violent car crash and an eye injury, and ended with a decision loss in Sydney and a quiet goodbye.

Long Island Birth and a DeSoto Upbringing

Errol Spence Jr. was born on March 3, 1990, on Long Island, New York, to Errol Spence Sr. and Debra Spence. His father's family has Jamaican roots, and his mother is African-American. The family moved to Texas while he was young, and he grew up in DeSoto, south of Dallas. The Dallas area has been his base for most of his life.

Boxing was not the first plan. As a teenager he pictured himself playing for the Dallas Cowboys. During his sophomore year of high school, his father took him to a boxing gym, mainly to keep him away from trouble. According to Wikipedia's account of his early years, he had trained for only about two weeks when he won the Dallas Silver Gloves tournament. That early result marked him as a natural, and the sport soon took over from football.

Amateur Titles and the London 2012 Quarter-Final

Spence moved quickly through the American amateur ranks. In 2009 he won the U.S. National Golden Gloves, and he took three straight U.S. national welterweight championships from 2009 to 2011. His amateur record is listed at 135 wins and 12 losses.

The international stage was harder. At the 2011 World Championships he lost in the quarter-finals to Serik Sapiyev. A year later at the London Olympics he again reached the last eight, then lost to Russia's Andrey Zamkovoy, which ended his medal hopes. Soon afterward he turned professional.

Building a Pro Record From Indio to Brooklyn

His professional debut came on November 9, 2012, at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California, where he stopped Jonathan Garcia in the third round. He finished 2013 at 10-0 with eight knockouts and kept moving up in competition. On June 27, 2014, he made his Showtime debut and outpointed Ronald Cruz over 10 rounds. ESPN.com named him its Prospect of the Year for 2015.

In 2016 he began to look like a contender. On April 16 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, a left hook finished Chris Algieri in the fifth round. That August, at the Ford Amphitheater on Coney Island, an uppercut stopped Leonard Bundu in the sixth round of an IBF eliminator, earning Spence a mandatory shot at the champion.

Champion at Bramall Lane

That champion was Kell Brook, and the fight was set for Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England, on May 27, 2017. Spence travelled as the challenger and steadily wore Brook down. All three judges had him in front when Brook's corner ended the contest at 1:47 of the 11th round.

His first defences were one-sided. On January 20, 2018, Lamont Peterson's trainer stopped their fight at Barclays Center at the end of the seventh round. Wikipedia's narrative describes the stoppage as coming one second into the eighth round, while its results table records it as a retirement after round seven. Five months later, at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, Spence knocked out Carlos Ocampo at the end of the first round.

Texas Stadium Nights and the Unification Years

Spence was now a headliner. On March 16, 2019, he fought Mikey Garcia at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and won every round on two cards (120-107, 120-108, 120-108) to keep the IBF belt. The pay-per-view drew about 360,000 buys. On September 28, 2019, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, he met WBC champion Shawn Porter in a hard fight. He won a split decision, 116-111, 116-111 and 112-115, unifying two belts.

After a long absence, discussed below, he returned to AT&T Stadium on December 5, 2020, and beat Danny Garcia by unanimous decision (116-112, 116-112, 117-111). His next unification came on April 16, 2022, back in Arlington against WBA titleholder Yordenis Ugás. Spence battered Ugás until the ringside physician advised a stoppage at 1:44 of the 10th round. He now held three of the four major welterweight titles: IBF, WBC and WBA.

The 2019 Crash and the Retinal Tear

Two weeks after the Porter win, Spence nearly died. At about 2:53 a.m. on October 10, 2019, his Ferrari 488 Spider crashed in Dallas. Police said the car was traveling at high speed, crossed a median and flipped several times. He was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the car. He had facial cuts but no broken bones and spent six days in intensive care. He had been drinking earlier that night. He was charged with driving while intoxicated, a class-B misdemeanor, and received probation without jail time. Wikipedia also records two later incidents that were not his fault: in January 2020 another driver rear-ended his G-Wagon, and in December 2022 a 14-year-old in a stolen car ran a red light and hit his vehicle. Both left the people involved largely unhurt.

In August 2021 a second setback came. Spence was preparing to face Manny Pacquiao on August 21 when a retinal tear in his left eye forced him out. Yordenis Ugás took his place on the card, a substitution that set up the Spence-Ugás unification the following spring.

Crawford and the Undisputed Night in Las Vegas

The fight the sport had waited years for took place on July 29, 2023, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Spence, unbeaten at 28-0, put his three belts on the line against WBO champion Terence Crawford for the undisputed welterweight title. It went badly from early on. According to ESPN's Mike Coppinger, Crawford dropped Spence in the second round, the first knockdown of his professional career, and twice more in the seventh. Referee Harvey Dock stopped the fight at 2:32 of the ninth round. CompuBox counted 185 punches landed by Crawford to Spence's 96.

Spence did not dispute the result afterward. ESPN quoted him as saying, "I make no excuses." He triggered his rematch clause, and the IBF later stripped Crawford and elevated Jaron Ennis. The rematch never happened; in 2025 Spence said he would not have been ready in the required window. The Crawford pay-per-view was the biggest of his career, with about 700,000 buys and more than $59 million in revenue, according to figures compiled on Wikipedia.

Three Years Away and a Change of Corner

Spence did not fight again for about three years. In 2025 he split with Derrick James over compensation. Talks with WBC super welterweight champion Sebastian Fundora stalled that year, and Jermell Charlo publicly called him out. Spence eventually chose former unified 154-pound champion Tim Tszyu for his return and moved to trainer Ronnie Shields. Speaking to The Ring before the bout, he said he had thought about retirement during the layoff but that the time off had let his body recover.

Sydney and the Final Bell

The comeback fight took place at Afterpay Arena in Sydney, Australia, on July 26, 2026, local time (the evening of July 25 in the United States). Reports differ on the weight. The Ring described a 158-pound catchweight, while theScore and Newsweek called it a middleweight bout. Newsweek reported that Spence had been out for 1,093 days. He opened well with his jab and body work, but Tszyu's pressure, size and right hand took over as the rounds passed. The judges scored it 118-110, 117-111 and 117-111 for Tszyu.

Afterward, Spence said it was time to go home to his family and start a new life. Asked by Newsweek whether this was the end, he answered, "Yeah, for sure," adding that his faculties and finances were intact. Newsweek noted that he had made no formal retirement announcement at the time of its report.

Professional Record and Titles Won

Spence's professional record stands at 28 wins and 2 losses with no draws, and 22 of the wins came by knockout, as reported by theScore and Newsweek after the Tszyu fight. His losses came against Terence Crawford (TKO 9, 2023) and Tim Tszyu (unanimous decision, 2026).

Major titles won: the IBF welterweight title (2017, against Kell Brook), the WBC welterweight title (2019, against Shawn Porter) and the WBA (Super) welterweight title (2022, against Yordenis Ugás). He held all three at the same time until the Crawford fight. Wikipedia also lists honorary WBC titles but does not list him as a Ring Magazine champion. His five headline pay-per-views from 2019 to 2023 generated about 1.91 million buys in total.

Sources

• Errol Spence Jr., Wikipedia, accessed 13 November 2026
• Terence Crawford stops Errol Spence Jr. to win undisputed welterweight crown, ESPN (Mike Coppinger), 30 July 2023
• Spence expects Tszyu to present stiff test after long layoff, The Ring (Nate Pardo-Marrero), 10 July 2026
• Spence retires after unanimous decision loss to Tszyu, theScore, July 2026
• Errol Spence's comeback ends with loss to Tim Tszyu, Newsweek, July 2026