Schaefer says fans want Errol Spence vs. Mikey Garcia, not Spence-Crawford

Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams: Promoter Richard Schaefer says the boxing fans everywhere are asking him about when IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. will be fighting Mikey Garcia rather than about when Errol will be fighting Terence Crawford. That fight isn’t being asked about by the fans, according to Schaefer.

It’s interesting that the casual boxing fans aren’t asking when Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) and Crawford will be fighting. One reason for that is

Schaefer says the Spence-Garcia fight will likely take place in the first quarter of 2019, because they don’t want to put on a second PPV fight with it coming after the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury fight, which will be taking place on December 1 on Showtime pay-per-view.

“It’s going to be a pay-per-view fight on it’s own,” said Richard Schaefer to Fighthype about Mikey Garcia vs. Errol Spence Jr. “Mikey Garcia is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. He’s serious about wanting to fight Spence, and I think that’s another fight that is going to have to wait until the first quarter of next year, because you can’t go with big pay-per-views back to back,” Schaefer said.

It would be tough for Garcia vs. Spence to follow the Wilder-Fury fight in December. To maximize earnings, Spence-Garcia needs to take place next year in the first quarter of the year before April or May, which is when Anthony Joshua and Saul Canelo Alvarez are going to be fighting in their respective bouts.

Garcia is really taking on a huge challenge in facing Spence, who will be moving up in weight to 154 and 160 in a couple of years. Spence wants to try and unify the welterweight division before he moves up in weight to 154 or 160.

“For the time being on PBC side of things, there are so many great welterweight fights which can happen,” Schaefer said. “Whether Terence Crawford is part of it or not really doesn’t matter. It’s not like everywhere I go everybody is telling me, ‘We need to see Spence against Crawford.’ Nobody really talks to me about that. I’m being asked all the time, ‘When is Mikey going to fight Spence?’ People are really starting to buy into the fight,” Schaefer said.

Crawford hasn’t become a big name yet because he’s been fighting at 135 and 140 for most of his 10-year pro career. Those are not super popular weight divisions unfortunately with the casual boxing fans. There have been popular fighters at 135 and 140 in the distant past in guys like Oscar De La Hoya, Kostya Tszyu and Julio Cesar Chavez, but those guys were around a long time ago. Crawford hasn’t been matched against the right guys, and his counter punching, switching hitting and highly mobile fighting style isn’t exciting to a lot of boxing fans.

“I saw an interview recently of Larry Merchant where he said he was really intrigued by that fight,” Schaefer said. “He was asked in that interview, ‘who would you pick in that fight, Spence or Garcia?’ and in typical Larry Merchant fashion, he reflected and said, ‘I wouldn’t bet against Mikey Garcia. So that’s a guy whose judgement I very much value. So think there’s more interested in that [Spence vs. Garcia] fight. Bob [Arum] is doing a good job with ESPN. He can keep Crawford and Lomachenko busy all the time,” Schaefer said.