Errol Spence Jr. Defeats Ugás, Setting Up a Huge Fight With Crawford

Crawford, who was not at ringside, live-tweeted Saturday’s main event and ended his social media session with some trash talk aimed at building anticipation for a fight boxing fans have long wanted.

“Keep my belts warm,” Crawford tweeted at Spence. “I’m coming to grab ’em later this year.”

From a purely competitive standpoint, a matchup of Spence and Crawford, widely considered the welterweight division’s two best fighters, has long made sense. But professional boxing is also a business, which has complicated pairing the two fighters. Spence is aligned with Premier Boxing Champions, while Crawford, until November, was signed with Top Rank, a rival promotional outfit.

But now Crawford is a free agent, and Spence’s stock is rising after his emphatic victory. Spence, who is 28-0, might not enjoy the mainstream fame of some of his welterweight predecessors, like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao, but he sells pay-per-views and tickets — 39,946 spectators attended Saturday’s card.

“When we look at the history with Errol Spence, he’s pretty reliably at least 300,000 buys,” Stephen Espinoza, the president of Showtime Sports, the pay-per-view partner for Saturday’s card, said in an interview before the fight. “He’s generating a gross of at least $20 million every time out, just in pay-per-view revenue. That’s an elite figure.”

Spence also delivers action.

Early in their bout, Ugás scored with jabs and right hands to the body, disrupting Spence’s advances and countering his big punches. But as rounds passed, Spence found his rhythm and increased his output, denying Ugás clear chances to counter. Where Ugás landed punches from midrange, Spence worked from the outside in, prodding with his right jab until he could move close enough to rip punches to Ugás’s body and head.

In Round 6, Ugás created enough space to land that heavy right hand. He believed, momentarily, that he had turned the fight.

“I thought I had a chance there,” Ugás said in the ring after the bout. “But he’s a great fighter. He recovered.”