Notebook: Source: Spence return vs. Tszyu in works for June in Australia
Wardley-Dubois in talks; Turki eyes Figueroa for September Canelo card; Santiago to defend unified title; Leo-Aleem heads to purse bid; Ramirez-Catterall agreement; Quick hits; Show & tell double
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On Jan. 16, 2025, Errol Spence Jr., responding to a fan on social media who had told him he wanted to see him back in the ring, responded, “I’ll be back when IM ready.”
Apparently, the former three-belt unified welterweight titleholder and longtime entrant in the pound-for-pound top 10 is now ready.
Plans are in the works for Spence to move up to junior middleweight and travel to Australia to take on Aussie star and former WBO 154-pound titlist Tim Tszyu in June, a source with direct knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. Ring magazine first reported the prospect of the bout.
The bout would be a PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view in the United States, the source said. There is no deal done yet, however. Although Spence is ready to pack his bags for his third fight outside the United States — he has also fought in Canada and won his first welterweight belt from Kell Brook in England — it is possible that Tszyu may take an interim fight first, perhaps as soon as March, although that is not certain, the source said,
The bout would be Spence’s first in three years. He has not fought since squaring off with Terrence Crawford in a long-awaited four-belt unification fight for the undisputed welterweight title in a mega Showtime PPV event on July 29, 2023 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.