The best fight to materialize from this past weekend’s action is the junior-middleweight win-or-go-home match between former three-belt champion Errol Spence Jnr and ex-154lbs titlist Tim Tszyu.

By routing Italy’s Denis Nurja in Australia Sunday, Tszyu 27-3 (18 KOs), clinched another homecoming match against Texas’ Spence, 28-1 (22 KOs), at a yet-to-be-finalized summer date, contingent upon how quickly Tszyu can heal from a cut sustained under an eye during the shutout victory.

Tszyu later appeared on Brian Custer’s “Last Stand Podcast” and said he believes he will pummel the aging Spence, 36, much like the 28-year-old WBC 154lbs champion Sebastian Fundora battered former champion Keith Thurman, 37, on March 28 in Las Vegas.

“Look what happened with Thurman … Errol Spence is sort of in that generation and that’s what I want to do and expect to do against him,” Tszyu said.

Spence spoke confidently of winning himself, chiding Tszyu that landing a Spence bout is the most important fight of his career.

The compelling twist in this clash is that both men have suffered brutal drubbings in the recent past.

After Tszyu was badly bloodied by a head gash caused by an errant Fundora elbow in their first meeting in 2024, he was repeatedly knocked down and finished by then-IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and then stopped by Fundora in their rematch – three brutal losses within 16 months. 

Spence 28-1 (22 KOs) hasn’t fought since he was beat down by five-division champion Terence Crawford in July 2023 – getting knocked down three times before succumbing in the ninth.

Given that Spence has also endured a harrowing multiple-flip crash of his Ferrari in Dallas in 2019, which led to a 15-month ring absence, some project he has much to prove about what talent remains.

One of those Spence cynics is back-to-back trainer of the year Robert Garcia, who elaborated this week on ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today.”

“The question is, ‘What Errol Spence will we see?’ Because we haven’t seen him in a while,” Garcia said on Monday’s show with host Chris Algieri and BoxingScene’s Tom Ivers, who had just commented on Tszyu’s mighty tumble from unbeaten champion to uncertain contender.

Garcia praised Tszyu’s performance and wonders why Spence is not taking a tune-up.

“Honestly, it’s tough to say we’ll see a new Errol Spence. He might not have anything left, and that’s what I think: He has nothing left, and I’ll [pick] Tim Tszyu,” Garcia said.

“He’s not taking tune-ups because he knows he has nothing left. That tune-up may ruin him. He’s taking that big pay day and that’s it.”

Algieri agreed Spence not fighting is “not a good sign,” considering he’s also moving up in weight.

“It feels like a money grab,” Ivers said.