Report- Showtime Will Air Errol Spence-Ugas PPV

Earlier this week unbeaten Unified Welterweight champ Errol Spence announced he’s returning to the ring off eye surgery in a pay per view with fellow champ Yordenis Ugas of Cuba. Now, an interesting Thursday night report says who will apparently televise the bout.

Boxingscene.com’s Keith Idec had the story first that he’s learned Showtime Championship Boxing will handle another prominent PPV, recently for the upcoming Spence-Ugas on April 16th. This, as the network that’s been televising world title fights for over 30 years had the PPV of future Hall of Famer Canelo Alvarez gaining Undisputed Super Middleweight status with a TKO win over Caleb Plant last November,

Spence-Ugas: Showtime To Distribute Pay-Per-View Fight April 16 From AT&T Stadium https://t.co/huBOwjL6HI pic.twitter.com/MZ6SQn3JBf

— BoxingScene.com (@boxingscene) February 9, 2022

From Idec’s report,

BoxingScene.com has learned that Showtime will handle production and marketing of the Errol Spence Jr.-Yordenis Ugas fight April 16 in Arlington, Texas. Spence (27-0, 21 KOs), of DeSoto, Texas, and the Cuban-born, Miami-based Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) will fight for Spence’s IBF and WBC welterweight titles and Ugas’ WBA belt at AT&T Stadium, the home venue of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys…

FOX Sports distributed each of Spence’s past three fights – victories over Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia that all headlined pay-per-view events. Showtime televised each of Spence’s previous three fights – wins against Kell Brook, Lamont Peterson and Carlos Ocampo – live on that premium cable channel.

Al Haymon’s PBC has output deals with FOX Sports and Showtime.

PBC and Showtime have aggressively pursued (Canelo) Alvarez for a return engagement with those two companies for the Mexican superstar’s next fight, which could take place May 7. If the four-division champion chooses to stay with PBC and Showtime, he would fight WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) in his next fight, a 168-pound championship match

As we wrote on Tuesday, the Texan Spence, 27-0, 21 KOs, confirmed the Ugas fight for April 16th at the massive 90,000 seat venue known as “Jerry’s World” for the Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones. He’s fought on PPV there three previous times, including his win in December of 2020 over contender Danny Garcia.

That was Spence’s first title defense, since his horrific one car crash in Dallas October of 2019. The accident came just two weeks after he had added the WBC 147 lb. World title to his IBF championship in a decision win over Shawn Porter in L.A. Spence, who was later found to be driving while impaired, sent his car catapulting and was ejected, suffering a concussion and a fractured jaw.

As for Ugas, he’s 27-4, and replaced Spence on last than two weeks notice in August due to Spence’s eye injury and eventual surgery.  Ugas then scored the upset win in Las Vegas over Manny Pacquiao by decision in a career-defining moment. He used his superior jab and long right hand to keep Pacquiao at bay to score the impressive 12 round unanimous decision win.

Now, it sets up Ugas for the chance to hold three of the 147 lb. world titles and make the biggest payday of his career.

The apparent securing of Spence-Ugas for PPV continues a resurgence for Showtime, which went back to their PPV model in late 2020 that took shape most prominently all the way back in the mid-1990s with former Heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. Coming off the beginnings of the Covid 19 Pandemic in the Fall of 2020, they televised world title defenses on consecutive nights for the Charlo Brothers from the empty Mohegan Sun Casino arena in Connecticut.

The network recently and prominently out bid Fox Sports (and everyone else) to get the Canelo-Caleb Plant PPV last November.