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By Cassandra Cousineau, LVSportsBiz.com Boxing Writer
Tonight’s Terance Crawford vs Errol Spence Jr. match is a throwback fight for fans and the boxing industry. It’s very unlikely you will see a fight carrying significant meaning featuring boxers with their type of approach to the business again after the two square off in a massive four-belt unification in Las Vegas.
Stephen Espinoza, president of Showtime Sports, told LVSportsBiz.com, “It’s more a reflection of society. Today’s culture doesn’t really reward the quiet respectful types. It’s about who can scream the loudest, who can make the greatest impact, do the most outrageous things.”
These two fighters are old-school.
They are boxers first, focusing on getting down to brass tacks in the ring, and Twitter personalities as only a necessary part of doing business.
By today’s standards, they engage in very minimal social media back-and-forth jawing, and chest thumping. It’s an approach that has limited their financial standing as fighters. With influencers Jake and Logan Paul disrupting the landscape, it’s not surprising that boxers like Ryan Garcia capitalize on the moment to build their net worth through social media platforms and translate it into bigger money fights.
“So, in this sense, it is a throwback. It’s a throwback to when guys let their skills, their accomplishments, their resumes speak for themselves. It’s a throwback to a different type of competition, a different type of rivalry,” Espinoza added.
Spence vs Crawford is a big money fight too with Espinoza telling LVSportsBiz, “The live gate at T-Mobile will be somewhere close to $20 million.”
That’s a hefty sum that doesn’t include Pay-Per-View money setting fans back a steep $84.95. In the UK, where the sport is measurably more popular the fight can be purchased to stream for an affordable £19.95 Euros, the equivalent of $22 in America.
When we asked if Showtime or PBC, the lead promoter, considered holding this fight in any other location but Las Vegas, Espinoza responded, “We thought about AT&T in Texas, but that would’ve been Errol’s backyard.”
Swinging the delicate negotiations in the favor of paying the elite fighters an elite sum, had a lot to do with it as well.
“In Arlington, the upper bowl tickets would’ve been priced at $100. That would take them to about $300 on the secondary market,” Espinoza said. “Here, in Las Vegas, those tickets are going for a starting price of $300, minimizing the secondary markup.”
The secondary market often purchases tickets to an event, and then resell them to buyers at an inflated price.
“The actual fighters never receive any of that secondary market money. So, what that does for us, is it allows for about 80% of ticket pricing to go directly to the fighters. Spence and Crawford, in this instance. You can’t really do that, have that kind of pricing in any other place in the country but Las Vegas. Let’s face it, this city is having a moment. It is not just the boxing Mecca. It’s a destination and becoming the sports capital of the United States,” the longtime executive noted.
Contrary to boxing circle opinions, the meeting between Spence and Crawford is actually happening right on time. At 33 and 35 years old, respectively, the two are at the tail end of their prime and fighting at Welterweight, the glamor division of boxing. It’s likely one or both of them will head up a division after this match. Not quite the very late in the career scenario of Mayweather vs Pacquiao, but here we are.
Crawford (38-0, 29 KO) holds the WBO title. Spence (28-0, 22 KO) holds the IBF, WBC and WBA world titles at 147 pounds. The two have circled one another going back to when Spence first became champion in May 2017 and Crawford in 2019. In between then, and now, Spence was involved in a horrific, solo car accident, flipping his Ferrari multiple times, and had detached retina surgery in 2021.
Signing to different and often adversarial promoters kept the two locked in “other side of the street” nonsensical business standstills for the better part of a decade. Spence, an Olympian, is with PBC. Crawford signed to Las Vegas based Top Rank Boxing in 2011, and remained on the roster for 10 years. Upon his departure the Nebraska native sued the promoter and its founder Bob Arum.
During the ceremonial weigh-in and final face-to-face before Saturday evening’s fight the two had a quiet exchange caught on camera ending with Crawford saying, “We gone make history, baby.”