By Dean Berman: Errol Spence Jr. showed that he’s the new pay-per-view king for the welterweight division with his unification fight against Shawn Porter tracking at over 300,000 pay-per-view buys on Fox Sports for last Saturday. Spence-Porter expected to bring in 350,000 buys, according to @MikeCoppinger.
Those numbers could eclipse the 300,000+ buys Spence’s previous fight against Mikey Garcia brought in earlier this year on March 16 on Fox Sports Pay-Per-View. Although Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs) tried arguing that he was the reason for the fight being successful on PPV last Saturday, it’s more of a case of Spence being the #1 pay-per-view attraction.
At the time of the Spence-Garcia fight, a lot of people attributed the 300+ buys to Mikey’s hard work in promoting the fight. But now that Spence has brought in over 300,000 buys against a fighter that isn’t super popular in Porter, it forces people to take notice.
“We were going for the best night of our lives,” Porter said. “I still feel fantastic. I felt fantastic the whole way. We came up short and it didn’t end the way we expected.”
Spence taking over as top PPV star in U.S
Saul Canelo Alvarez used to own that title of the #1 PPV attraction. Before he stopped fighting on PPV, he was bringing in over 1 million buys for his fights against Gennady Golovkin. However, now that Canelo is fighting on the DAZN subscription service, it’s impossible to know for sure if he’s still the #1 PPV fighter in the U.S.
Spence’s popularity in the sport is skyrocketing right now, and the only thing that could limit his success is a lack of quality opponents.
Porter gave Spence a heck of a fight last Saturday in losing a 12 round split decision at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. In the second half of the fight, Spence took over with his pressure, and won going away.
The scores were 116-111, 116-111 for Errol, and 115-113 for Porter. Very few boxing fans gave the fight to Porter. Most felt that Spence had done enough to deserve the win. What most boxing fans would agree with was the fight being a thrilling one to watch from start to finish.
Errol to face Danny Garcia next on January 25
Spence is expected to fight Danny Garcia next on January 25 on Fox Sports PPV. That’s an interesting fight for the fans to see. Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman is saying that Garcia punches harder than Porter, and will give Spence something to think about ni that fight.
Thurman is still picking Spence to win, but he sees it as another grueling affair. If Spence chooses to box Garcia like he did in his win over Mikey Garcia on March 16th, it’s going to be an easy win for him. Danny doesn’t have the same kind of boxing ability that Spence possesses.
Spence increased the pace when he needed to
Porter fought well in rounds 1 through 6, but Spence switched gears and took over in rounds 7 through 12. Spence knocked Porter down with a textbook left hook in round 11.
The shot whip-lashed Porter’s head, and he looked badly hurt. But after getting back to his feet, Porter fought back reasonably well for the remainder of the round.
Spence still landed the better shots, and he finished strong in round 12. For a lot of boxing fans, the knockdown in the 11th round sealed the victory for Spence.
Sources: The PBC on FOX PPV headlined by Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter is tracking over 300,000 buys, with the final number generated expected to land under 350K. Strong business that cements Spence as a PPV attraction. His PPV with Mikey Garcia generated over 300K also
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) September 30, 2019
