Saturday’s Errol Spence-Terence Crawford fight delivered a big punch for the pay-per-view boxing category by drawing an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 buys, industry sources said.
While the July 29 event will most likely fall short of the industry standard 1 million PPV buys, the fight — which Crawford won with a convincing ninth-round TKO of the formerly undefeated welterweight champion Spence — is expected to finish as the second-biggest PPV boxing event of the year so far, following Showtime’s April Tank Davis-Ryan Garcia bout, which drew a reported 1.2 million buys.
Despite Crawford’s one-sided win, the two fighters could meet later this year in a rematch. After the loss, Spence indicated that he would look to exercise a rematch clause in the contract that could put the fighters back in the ring as soon as December. A rematch would likely be fought at the 154-pound junior middleweight division, which is seven pounds heavier than Saturday's welterweight division fight.
Prior to Saturday’s event, Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza said he thinks the Spence-Crawford bout will boost the PPV appeal of both fighters. “These two gutsy fighters will emerge as bigger stars [after the fight] then they are going into the fight,” he said.
The PPV boxing category will now turn its attention to the August 5 event between YouTube star Jake Paul and former UFC champion Nate Diaz. The DAZN-distributed event will stream on DAZN PPV, ESPN Plus and PPV.com
