Freddie Roach: Errol Spence Jr. Hasn’t Mentally Recovered

Manny Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, is questioning if Errol Spence Jr. has mentally recovered from his 2019 Ferrari accident.

On Aug. 21, Spence will put his WBC and IBF Welterweight Titles at stake against Pacquiao. The action will be held inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. This will be Spence’s second bout since he was involved in a serious car accident.

Speaking to FightHubTV, Roach said he doesn’t think Spence has fully recovered mentally from the accident (h/t Bad Left Hook).

“He knows where he’s at and he’s in a good place. I know Errol Spence is a very good fighter, good boxer, but I still don’t think — I’m very leery of that car accident. He’s lucky to be alive, I’m happy he’s alive, but it was a real bad car accident and I still don’t think that’s over…Mentally, how could you (be 100% after the accident).”

Roach doubled down, saying he didn’t think Spence looked too special in his most recent outing against Danny Garcia.

“Yeah, okay, but he’s fighting Danny Garcia. That’s a big jump from Manny Pacquiao, believe me. But he looked okay in that fight, but it wasn’t great, but it was okay. But the thing is I’m happy he’s alive and so forth and happy he made it through that accident but, again, I don’t feel that accident’s over and I think Manny Pacquiao’s speed is — usually what it does is overwhelms a lot of people; the foot speed, the hand speed, the power he has. And when we had two knockdowns (in sparring) yesterday I was really happy. I don’t think Manny needed it as much as I did. It was good to see because that’s what the old Manny Pacquiao used to do.”

Errol Spence Jr. was admitted to the intensive care unit following the accident. He was able to survive the crash without any broken bones.