Spence is scheduled to return against Tim Tszyu on July 25 in Australia. While many observers have focused on the damage from his 2023 loss to Terence Crawford and the years spent out of the ring, Prograis believes one other factor might be just as vital.
“If he said that already, one foot out, it’s going to be hard to come back back in,” said Prograis to The Punch Podcast. “What makes you fall in love again? What makes you be obsessive about that again? In the event you did all the things already?
“Tim Tszyu, they’re not fighting for a belt. They’re not fighting for what? Just quite a lot of money. In the event you do it for the cash, that’s at all times the fallacious reason.”
Prograis identified that Spence has already completed greater than most fighters ever will, making it difficult to know whether the previous welterweight champion can recapture the mindset that helped him develop into one in every of boxing’s elite names.
“The old Errol Spence man was a killer, bro. People forget how good Errol Spence really was. Errol was a dog at one cut-off date. He was really an actual killer within the ring,” said Prograis.
“If the old Errol comes back, I believe I got Errol Spence by a landslide.”
Prograis also noted that age eventually catches every fighter, no matter talent.
“The speed leave you. The speed will leave you. Power at all times be there,” said Prograis. “The reflexes, they do leave. That’s the important thing you wish in boxing. The reflexes, the foot speed, the hand speed.”
Spence’s inactivity has often been linked to the Crawford defeat, but Prograis suggested motivation often is the larger query. Fighters who still need titles, money, or recognition often find their way back quickly. Spence already has all three.
That’s the reason his fight with Tszyu may reveal less about what Crawford took from him and more about whether boxing still gives him something price chasing.
