Spence (25-0, 21 KOs) and Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs) reportedly drew between 350,000 and 400,000 buys. Multiple sources have indicated to BoxingScene.com that Crawford-Khan produced less than half the buys Spence-Garcia generated.
Crawford (36-0, 25 KOs) was a heavy favorite over Khan (33-5, 20 KOs), who declined to continue during the sixth round, once Crawford hit him with what was ruled an unintentional low blow. According to Spence, a diminished Khan wasn’t the only obstacle that made Crawford’s second pay-per-view fight a difficult sell.
“It’s not just the opponents he’s fighting, but the whole promotional thing behind him,” Spence said. “Like when Showtime promotes and FOX promotes, they really put everything into it. With the Crawford fight, you really didn’t hear nothing until the week of the fight. I kind of forgot about it. I didn’t hear nothing about it until the week of the fight. They started promoting it probably Thursday or Friday. That’s when it really got out there like that. So, I feel like they could’ve done a better job of promoting it.”
Crawford-Khan did receive a sustained promotional push on all of ESPN’s linear and digital platforms. Spence still feels Arum should spend more time promoting the three-division champion than Top Rank’s other elite-level star, Vasiliy Lomachenko.
The 31-year-old Crawford, of Omaha, Nebraska, and the 31-year-old Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs) are generally regarded as two of the top three boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
“With Crawford, it’s a lack of promotion,” Spence said. “I feel like Bob doesn’t promote Crawford like he should. I don’t know what that’s about, but I feel like he promotes Lomachenko way better than they promote Crawford. Even with the lead-up to the promotion of the Crawford fight, they were talking about Lomachenko in the same sentence with Crawford. Why are you talking about Lomachenko, when you’ve got your pay-per-view fighter fighting Saturday night? Every time they mentioned Crawford, they mentioned Lomachenko. What are you doing that for, when you’ve got Crawford fighting?
“When I fought on pay-per-view, they didn’t mention guys. They didn’t mention Keith Thurman, they didn’t mention Pacquiao. They mentioned me. They mentioned me versus Garcia, not, ‘Keith Thurman, Keith Thurman, Keith Thurman, Keith Thurman.’ Or, ‘Pacquiao, Pacquiao, Pacquiao, Pacquiao.’ If somebody mentioned Pacquiao and Keith Thurman, it was me who mentioned them, who I would like to fight next. I feel like the proof is in the pudding, how they handled the whole promotion. Me, I wasn’t even watching like that, and I noticed how they were handling the promotion, keep bringing up Lomachenko. Even after Crawford’s fight, they kept bringing up Lomachenko. Why? They’re not even in the same weight class. Why do you keep bringing this guy up? So, I feel like they’re over-promoting him, overkill, and Terence is not a guy who’s gonna speak up. He’s a guy who just wanna fight.”