A welterweight title unification between Errol Spence Jr and Shawn Porter is on the cusp of heading to FOX, not pay-per-view.
If you want to see Errol Spence Jr fight Terence Crawford next, that’s obviously not happening. However, a unification bout involving Spence appears to be on the horizon.
Ring Magazine’s Mike Coppinger reports that IBF welterweight champion Spence (25-0, 21 KOs) is expected to face WBC champion Shawn Porter (30-2-1, 17 KOs) on August 3rd at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Perhaps the best news for fight fans is this is targeted to headline a PBC on FOX show, as opposed to sticking it on pay-per-view.
Spence is coming off a comfortable win over then-IBF lightweight champion Mikey Garcia, in what was billed as a “superfight” involving Garcia going up two weight classes. It was a lopsided bout that saw Spence prevail in his pay-per-view debut, with the event pulling in north of 350,000 buys. His most recent fight against an actual welterweight was a first-round KO of Carlos Ocampo last summer, in what was a brutal mismatch. Spence took the IBF title from Kell Brook in May 2017.
Porter, who held the IBF title before losing it to Brook several year ago, won the vacant WBC belt last September with a unanimous decision against Danny Garcia. His first defense of the title came in March of this year, as he eked out a split decision over Yordenis Ugas. Only Brook and Keith Thurman have ever bested “Showtime” Shawn, who boasts wins over Adrien Broner, Andre Berto, and Paulie Malignaggi.
These are two of the top five welterweights in the world, so while Spence would be the considerable favorite, it’s still a logical and quality matchup. The winner hold two of the four major titles, while Manny Pacquiao and Keith Thurman are slated to fight for Thurman’s WBA belt in July. Crawford is the WBO champion and just beat Amir Khan in April, but doesn’t have a fight booked and is the only one not affiliated with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.
Oh yes, and did I mention that it would be on FOX and not pay-per-view? That’d be quite welcome.