{"id":374459,"date":"2026-01-17T03:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T03:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/374459\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T03:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T03:04:07","slug":"roy-jones-jr-weighs-in-on-errol-spence-jrs-boxing-future-after-visiting-him-in-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/374459\/","title":{"rendered":"Roy Jones Jr weighs in on Errol Spence Jr&#8217;s boxing future after visiting him in training"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of boxing\u2019s more encouraging sights in 2025 was the reappearance of <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/errol-spence-jr\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Errol Spence Jr<\/a> \u2014 not under the lights, but ringside, back among the familiar hustle and bustle of the sport.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/errol-spence-on-ortiz-ennis-verdict\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The former unified welterweight champion<\/a> has been absent from competition for more than two-and-a-half years following his humbling loss to Terence Crawford, a defeat that denied Spence the chance to become undisputed at 147lbs.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, his name and r\u00e9sum\u00e9 have ensured that speculation around a potential comeback has never entirely gone away, even if whether he will fight again remains unclear.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, Spence has spent time with Roy Jones Jr, who has taken on an informal advisory role as the Texan weighs up his future. Appearing as a guest on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/cYHJjfrLDd4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Clubhouse Boxing podcast<\/a>, the former pound-for-pound great explained what he hoped to achieve from their discussions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just worked a little bit to see how he was. He was good. I\u2019m glad to see him in high spirits. He\u2019s willing and ready to do whatever necessary to get back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just wanted to talk to him and try to give him some encouraging words and tell him that if he needs anything I\u2019m here to help him out because it\u2019s a brotherhood \u2013\u2013 he is a fellow fighter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you can help a young brother do something or help to inspire him to get his life back and on the right path you try to do that. That\u2019s all I was trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spence\u2019s 29-fight record contains just one defeat \u2014 to Crawford \u2014 but his journey outside the ring has been far more turbulent. The Texas southpaw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2019\/oct\/10\/errol-spence-jr-car-accident-injuried-bxoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">survived a horrific car crash in 2019<\/a> and underwent cataract surgery in 2024, experiences that have inevitably shaped the conversation around any return.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the 35-year-old has recently been linked with a potential all-Texas showdown against unbeaten, heavy-hitting super-welterweight Vergil Ortiz Jr at Arlington Stadium \u2014 a fight that would offer both risk and clarity, should Spence decide that his story in boxing is not yet finished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of boxing\u2019s more encouraging sights in 2025 was the reappearance of Errol Spence Jr \u2014 not under&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-374459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}