No Laughing Matter: Errol Spence-Mikey Garcia Preview by Jimmy Tobin

[thenonpareil]

We ask much of our best fighters, despite being conditioned to having our requests ignored. Yet when those requests are answered—which is more frequently than the hardest cynics among us care to note—we walk back our enthusiasm, stripping some prominent fights of the allure that made us lament their absence. Why? Because, conditioned again, we fear disappointment, because we equate criticism with insight, because we need something to do.

Sometimes, though, this dismantling feels justified. It did last year when lightweight Mikey Garcia, 39-0 (30), concretized months of talk and signed to face Errol “The Truth” Spence. Spence is no worse than the world’s second-best welterweight; the fight will take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (Spence’s adopted home state), under the promotional banner that has guided Spence’s career. At the time, Spence–Garcia felt absurd for reasons anyone taking the time to read this can appreciate. Worse, it felt cynical: a sacrificial formality intended to make a pay-per-view fighter of the PBC’s finest fighting achievement. Spence, 24-0 (21), once laughed at the notion of fighting Garcia, and many of us laughed right along with him.

https://hannibalboxing.com/no-laughing- ... a-preview/