Errol Spence says he wants Manny Pacquiao next, but Pacman seems only interested in Floyd Mayweather

Despite Danny Garcia clambering awkwardly into the ring to quickly stake his claim moments after Errol Spence Jnr was awarded the victory over a teak tough Shawn Porter in California on Saturday night, the unbeaten, now-unified welterweight champion Spence says he wants his next opponent to be Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao.

Following Spence’s hard-fought split decision win over Porter, it appeared to be announced that Garcia (35-2) would be next up for “The Truth”. The fight makes a lot of sense; Garcia is a fine fighter and a former welterweight champion, who has only lost in razor-thin decisions (though both losses have come in his last four outings). Garcia would have been hoping to propel himself back into the conversation for king of the stacked 147 glamour division.

However, Spence suggested he has other ideas after staking his claim for the upper reaches of the best pound-for-pound rankings by coming through a definite fight of the year contender with Porter.

With the Porter fight raising his profile higher than it’s been since his surprise win over Kell Brook in May 2017, and as the only unified champion in the division, Spence has his eye on undisputed honours and aims to hoover up the rest of the division’s hardware.

Those factors seem most likely to lead him to the ageing Pacquiao, after his superb win over Keith Thurman earlier this year propelled him back among the welterweight nobility, and then on to unbeaten fellow American Terence Crawford, arguably the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, for what would undoubtedly be a box office barn burner, when the two can overcome their network and promotional differences that is.

Pacquiao and Spence have promoter Al Haymon in common and Spence made it clear he wants “Pacman” next.

“I’m the only unified champion and the next fight I want is Manny Pacquiao,” Spence told Fox Sports after the fight.

The likelihood of that fight getting made relies heavily on Pacquiao, of course, and for his part, “the fighting senator” seems more interested in teasing Floyd Mayweather Jnr out of retirement for one last bonanza payday before surely hanging up his gloves.

However, for now Mayweather seems intent on staying out of the game happy to tease and beat up on novices in exhibition shows across Asia.

All of which means at some point the Filipino will be forced to plan an alternative route to that last bumper pay cheque.

Pacquiao himself has said little about any other potential opponent apart from Mayweather and in weekend comments to UAE’s The National revealed that talks with the Mayweather camp had been initiated.

“My people are talking to his people – they’re talking to each other,” Pacquiao said.

“We don’t know what the developments are, because I don’t have an update yet.”

Pacquiao confirmed he has a venue and broad time period next year earmarked for his next bout.

“There’s a huge expo next year [in Dubai], which starts October-November, so it’s good timing [between fights] from April to November. That gives me time. That’s the initial plan right now.”

Pacquiao, who is approaching a quarter of a century in the sport, stunned the boxing world when he scored a surprise triumph over the previously unbeaten Keith Thurman for the WBA welterweight title back in July, and said he’s more motivated than ever at this point in his career.

“People are saying: ‘Manny is getting old, getting slower’,” Pacquiao said. “It’s giving me a challenge and is going to be a challenge for me to work harder compared to before. Before I was just 90-95 per cent, but then hearing that I was 100 per cent, 100 per cent.”

Whether that hunger extends past efforts to cross swords with Mayweather again remains to be seen, and will be a development watched closely by many, including Spence.