Yes hes a good body puncher, but other than that he doesnt seem that special. Hes not exceptionally fast or powerful. He doesnt have great defense. Hes not superbly technical. And his best win over a non damaged opponent is Chris Algieri. I mean does anybody really see him going more than 5 rounds with a guy like Trinidad? Wouldnt DLH box his ears off? Even Crawford seems a pretty solid choice to outbox him comprehensively. I still think the size will be too much for Garcia. But Spence being some special fighter? Nah, I dont see it. At this point I'd even rate Gervonta Davis over him p4p.
He is 100% an elite world champion top 10 p4p fighter. Hes like GGG in that many of the factors that make him so special and elite are subtle things that dont jump out at you. Hes not an elite athlete but he's a good to very good overall athlete. His hand and Foot speed are both well above average to good. He might be the best judge of distance in boxing and is one of the top 3 fighters in boxing in fighting at his preferred distance. He has a great punch Arsenal and variety and uses all of them well and seta up his zhots extremely well, he knows when to attack the body and when to go to the head. Physically he is extremely imposing, has EXCELLENT/ELITE power, his timing and accuracy are very good to excellent. Very good footwork. Very underrated defense. Nothing special, high guard, but is always right out of his opponents range and just inside his range to land. His excellent offense is part of his defense. Hes durable, can take a shot, and if hes being outboxed he can walk his opponent down and punish them and leave them a shot mess over 12. Nobody is perfect and no one ever said Spence was. He doesn't have the flash, speed, and overall reflexes Crawford has(who is his worst style matchup imo but still a toss up fight) but overall he is a tight, sharp, fundamentally and technically sound fighter who doesn't have eye catching flash or reflexes but does so many very important things great and is very underrated athletically. Add to all that his size, physicality, and imposising physical ability and strengrh and you have one of the best WW's -- possibly JMW or MW's out there. Don't get it twisted he is ABSOLUTELY an elite top 10 p4p fighter and will be for a while. Aya he has some flaws but he more than overcomes them in so many other areas and none of his flaws are glaring and the flaws he has can't be exposed to a great extent by all but the most elite fighters in the world. Crawford, Garcia, and Canelo I think are thw only fighters good enough to possibly beat him from WW to MW and also maybe Jacobs. He is that great.
I agree with most of the points mentioned in @pistal47 his post above. Spence for me is the best 147-er around.
If he does have elite p4p ability then it must be in the subtleties like you said. Because nothing he does flashes out at you.
Try to watch some of his videos. He is really good. Great power and reflexes. His counters is good and quite underrated. Good boxing fundementals too.
Ya totally agree with you. Unfortunately I think that's why he and GGG will largely go underappreciated and underrated by most. A shame really. And I hope you didnt take offense to my post, you're one of my favorite posters I was just typing why he was elite imo, doesn't mean I'm right or you're wrong, ya know?
His best win is Kell Brook. No excuses. Brook was hyped up beyond belief around here. If you are going to discount a win just because the opponent was previously stopped then you'd better do that for everyone
actually, those that hyped brook, tried tearing spences win down by claiming ggg had finished him, up and down in weight finished him, broken face finished him, etc... everything finished brook except spence. thats what actually happened.
I think its BS that one KO loss ruins a fighter. But usually the ones who recover from a brutal loss are fighters under 30 and those who weren't beaten down by a much larger man naturally. Brook even outweighed Golovkin on fight night. Fact is though hes smaller. Plus the bones in his face were broken. Brook was on the wrong side of 30 and took a semi prolonged and extended beatdown from a physically larger and stronger man. That's not good for a fighters health or longevity at all. Golovkin literally beat the prime out of Brook. That version of Brook was still probably a top 5 147 pounder, but he was still not remotely the same.
i did not see any difference in speed, reflexes, timing or power in the brook that fought porter and the one who fought spence. not saying there wasnt any, just saying there was no obvious signs that would make that argument more than just conjecture. brook was supposedly winning the fight up until he got stopped, according to the group i just mentioned.
His face being damaged played a role in his stoppage loss to Spence too. A lot of people think a pre Golovkin beatdown Brook would have continued out boxing Spence and won a decision.