By Sean Jones: Errol Spence Jr and Danny Garcia reportedly brought in over 250,000 pay-per-view buys for their fight last Saturday night on PBC on FOX. With the price of $75 per household, the Spence vs. Garcia fight drew $18,750,000, according to Mike Coppinger.
You have to wonder how many buys the Spence vs. Garcia fight would have pulled in if it were sold at $50 per household instead of $75. It may have done a lot more business, especially if the undercard was stacked instead of arguably thrown together.
The co-feature was junior middleweight Sebastian Fundora against replacement opponent Habib Ahmed. That wasn’t a good fight, as a lot of boxing fans have never heard of Fundora. He’s just some tall guy that was matched against a poor opponent in Ahmed.
$75 PPV events here to stay
This means that boxing fans can likely expect to be routinely paying $75 to watch boxing on Fox and Showtime PPV. The $75 is the same price the Charlo brother’s card went for this year, as well as the Gervonta Davis vs. Leo Santa Cruz match.
While it’s good for Spence that he could bring in over 250,000 buys, it could hurt his chances of putting together a fight against WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
Spence has shown himself to be the bigger PPV draw than Crawford with his fights against Danny, Mikey Garcia, and Shawn Porter.
But if Crawford still insists on getting a 60/40 cut, that fight isn’t going to happen. At this point, even a 50-50 split might not be possible because Spence is clearly the bigger draw.
For the fans that subscribe to DAZN, they’re getting a great bargain at $10 per month to watch excellent fights.
Spence controlled Danny Garcia with jab
“Danny’s biggest problem is he has a pace that is very slow, but he has a reset pace,” said Shawn Porter. “The way he fights is to reset, reset, reset. He has a reset pace that has got him in trouble in the welterweight division.
“He’s coming up short not because he doesn’t punch enough. It’s that he has a mindset of that he needs to reset and start over. You can’t always reset and start over.
“Danny doesn’t have the intelligence to do that in a fight. Spence broke him down. I’m like, Man. I’m excited for him, proud of him, and I have more respect for him. I had people tell me that the fight was more uneventful than they expected. I disagree.
“And I saw the art, specifically from Spence. I saw Errol Spence beat Danny Garcia with the most convincing beating that he’s taken. Great punch selection from Errol Spence Jr. A lot of jabs.
“My dude is trying to control people with his jab, and he knows he can control people with the jab. I’m interested to know what he can do with a jab in another fight with me because he’s got to make some adjustments, and I got to make some adjustments.
“The dude did something amazing. Errol Spence Jr is unique, special, and he’s different. I wasn’t sure, but I think it’s safe to say that he’s 100%,” Porter said of Spence being the same guy he used to be before his car crash.
Porter should know that if Spence does throw him a bone by giving him an undeserved rematch, he will be dealing with his powerful jab. Spence didn’t use his jab much last year in his own over Porter.
Instead, Spence stood in the pocket and outslugged Shawn, showing that he could beat him at his own game.
I struggle to understand how anything would be different in a second fight between Spence and Porter. If they fight again, it’ll be a money grab, and the fans won’t see anything different from the first fight.
Porter should earn the rematch with Spence by fighting Yordenis Ugas and showing that he can beat him without controversy.
Last year, Porter was given a questionable 12 round split decision win over the talented Cuban. The judge that seemed to have his eyes open scored it 117-111 for Ugas, which is a score that made sense.
Porter slams Angel Garcia on boxing knowledge
“Errol is smart, he plays the game really well, and he’s got a good feel for what’s going on in the ring,” said Porter.” There are moments where you hear a clap at the end of a round, and guys try and steal a round.
“He was making sure he finished the rounds strong, leaving a lasting impression on the judges before he goes back to the corner. The dude is smart.
“While I was watching, I was learning and taking it all in too. Danny Garcia’s dad, Angel Garcia, does not know the X’s and O’s of boxing.
“When Danny started to speak [during the fighter meeting before the fight], I started to get a notion there wasn’t going to be anything different.
“I was made because this wasn’t going to be the fight that I was hoping it would be. It wasn’t going to be as competitive as I hoped it would be.
“I knew on Thursday afternoon that Danny Garcia was not going to win this fight. I could see his demeanor, I could see the way he answered questions, and I could see his mindset.
“And I could see that he believed the things he was saying, and unfortunately, it was nothing different from what he said before. That’s exactly what we saw, and unfortunately, that’s why he came up short,” said Porter.
It’s come to a point where Danny needs to make a change with his trainer, but he probably won’t do it. Danny is ready to go down with the ship and stick it out with Angel to the bitter end.
The flaws that Danny Garcia has in his game should have been fixed by Angel Garcia a long time ago, but they haven’t. In a nutshell, Garcia has problems in these areas:
- Workrate
- Adapting
- Mobility
- Hand speed
Although Danny talks about wanting to change his game, he’s not shown the ability to improve on any of his flaws.
Danny Garcia can have success at 154
“Moving forward with Danny Garcia, I would say move up to 154 because I think he can have some success at 154,” said Porter.
There are still some exciting fights to be made for him at 147. Ugas is a fighter that is going to be right there in front of his face. He’s not crazy fast, not crazy strategic, movement.
“I think that could be an action-packed fight that Danny Garcia wins, and after that, he screams, I want another shot. I was worried about the dude [Spence], and I didn’t want to be his first fight back.
“If anything goes different and if anything happens, you got something to blame it on, and I’m not trying to be that guy. I wanted to see him get in the ring with anybody else; it didn’t matter who it was,” Porter said.
It’s going to be a big step up for Danny Garcia to move to the 154lb division because he’s too short, lacks the work rate or the mobility to compete with junior middleweights.
Danny will likely stay at 147 until he exhausts all his opportunities for paydays before he moves up to 154. Some boxing fans view Danny ‘Swift’ as the new Adrien Broner, a fighter that excelled t the lighter weights but was too small to compete at 147.
Broner has been useful as an opponent for the popular fighters at 147, and he’s made a lot of money without doing much in the division. Danny Garcia has done the same thing as Broner, and he perhaps has another year or two before he wears out his usefulness as an opponent.
If Garcia moves up to 154, he’ll find the pickings slim as far as paydays, and he won’t like what he finds. Jermell Charlo is arguably the most popular fighter at 154, and his days are numbered in that weight class.
By the time Danny does move up to 154, Charlo will likely have already gone up to 160.
Porter wants Spence, Crawford, or Pacquiao next
“I just needed to see him move around and show everybody that he looks good,” said Porter about Spence looking like his old self. “Now that I’ve seen that [Spence fighting at 100%], I’m good to go.
“The fact that he beat Danny the way he beat Danny, that gets me going. I could tell [after his in over Kell Brook], the dude is a great fighter, and I want to be a part of that.
“When I saw Errol Spence [against Danny Garcia], I thought, ‘This dude has got the nerve to try to be great, and I got the nerve to try to be great with him because I’m going to get in there with him again.’
“We don’t know if it’s going to be Spence or if it’s going to be Crawford [next]. Obviously, the Spence fight is easier to make. Obviously, there’s a lot of money to be made with Spence.
“We haven’t had any business conversations yet, but we’re going to get to that in a matter of days or shorter. I am very interested in the Bud Crawford fight.
“I really want Manny [Pacquiao]. And I think that if anything, you talk about him being older, and everything they said about him and Keith Thurman.
“You might hear echoes of that again. I think that I would live up to everything you heard echoed about him and Thurman. That’s a fight for the ages, I think,” said Porter.
Spence probably won’t look in the direction of Porter next because it’s too soon for them to fight, and there won’t be a huge interest from boxing fans in purchasing the match.
Porter is rarely mentioned among boxing fans for who they want Spence to fight next, and the reason for that is he’s done nothing since his loss to Errol.’
Porter came back from his defeat against Spence by beating a German fighter named Sebastian Formella last August. Even hardcore fans had never heard of Formella before that fight happened.