Roy Jones Jr Thinks Errol Spence Got Exactly What He Wanted vs Tszyu

Errol Spence Jr dropped a unanimous decision to Tim Tszyu last weekend at Sydney's Afterpay Arena, his first fight in three years and, by the look of his post-fight comments, likely his last. The 36-year-old was returning from the ninth-round stoppage loss to Terence Crawford that ended his welterweight reign, this time stepping all the way up to 160lbs after asking to bump the originally agreed 158lb catchweight.

Roy Jones Jr, who'd actually picked Spence to win, doesn't think the scorecards tell the real story. Speaking on All The Smoke Fight, the pound-for-pound legend argued that Spence got precisely the outcome he was after — even if it wasn't the one on the judges' tallies. In Jones's read, this was a man settling his own accounts, not chasing a belt.

Jones's Take

Jones said Spence did it his way: going to a fighter's hometown, standing across from a former champion, and going the distance on his feet. He suggested Spence walked out able to tell himself he could rest easy — that the fight was about proving something internal rather than winning a title. Whatever you make of that framing, Spence heard the final bell without picking up any serious damage, which at this stage of a career is its own kind of result.

The extra weight was supposed to help. Spence pushed for 160 over the agreed 158, presumably banking on the size to level things out. Instead it was Tszyu — a former super-welterweight titlist naturally moving up rather than a shrunken welterweight ballooning up — who looked the fresher, sharper man. Three years off and a decade-and-a-half of hard miles will do that.

What's Next for Tszyu

Tszyu isn't sticking around at 154. In his own post-fight interviews he said he wants to stay at middleweight and immediately called out Erislandy Lara, the division's WBA champion. Lara, 32-3-3 with 19 knockouts, is coming off a unanimous-decision win over Johan Gonzalez and represents a real step up in class from a faded Spence.

For Spence, the arithmetic now points one direction. A three-year layoff, a decisive loss at a career-high weight, and a public interview that read like a farewell. Jones believes the American got the peace he came for. If that holds, the Crawford defeat won't be the final chapter — this quieter night in Sydney will be.