Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza: No chance of putting Canelo-Plant on hold until the end of UFC 268
LAS VEGAS — When Canelo Alvarez and Caleb Plant sq. off within the first-ever undisputed tremendous middleweight championship struggle on Saturday (Showtime PPV, 9 p.m. ET, $79.99) on the MGM Grand Backyard Area, they are going to be dealing with stiff competitors from one other main fight sports activities pay-per-view occasion.
Throughout the nation at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York, UFC 268 can be going down. That extremely anticipated present contains a high quality lineup of bouts topped off by a rematch between welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington.
It isn’t the primary time a Canelo struggle has gone head-to-head with a significant UFC occasion. On this similar weekend in 2019, on the evening when Alvarez spectacularly knocked out Sergey Kovalev within the 11th spherical to win the WBO gentle heavyweight title at MGM Grand Backyard Area, UFC 244, headlined by Jorge Masvidal versus Nate Diaz, was additionally going down at Madison Sq. Backyard.
Alvarez-Kovalev was on streaming service DAZN, whose executives made the choice to delay the beginning of the principle occasion till after the conclusion of the UFC important occasion.
The outcome was an embarrassing delay of round 45 minutes that led to scenes of Alvarez and Kovalev stretched out of their dressing rooms showing to be asleep and followers solely within the boxing important occasion skewering DAZN on social media for the choice.
Many seen it as disrespectful to make Alvarez, the game’s No. 1 star, take a backseat to a UFC struggle.
Alvarez-Plant is on Showtime PPV and plenty of boxing followers have requested in the event that they might be in for a repeat scenario on Saturday evening.
Requested about that prospect, Showtime Sports activities president Stephen Espinoza emphatically instructed The Ring, “Hell, no.”
Then Espinoza expanded on his response.
“I’m not going to say in sure conditions we don’t control a sport and if it’s going to be 5 or 10 minutes, positive,” Espinoza stated of doubtless holding the principle occasion for a short interval to permit a sport to finish so these additionally within the struggle can catch every stay. “I’m a giant sports activities fan as nicely. However when you’ve got boxing’s Tremendous Bowl — and each time Canelo fights it’s boxing’s Tremendous Bowl — we really feel a accountability to deal with it as such and elevate it, and it shouldn’t be demeaned or diminished. Not simply within the presentation however when it comes to different sports activities, and this has nothing to do actually with the rivalry between boxing and UFC.
“That is you’ve got a really passionate fan base and we have to ship to them the perfect that we are able to do, and the perfect that we are able to do is just not making folks anticipate 45 minutes or an hour.”
Espinoza stated that scenario that occurred in 2019 merely is not going to repeat itself on the subject of Alvarez-Plant and UFC 268.
“It’s important to respect folks’s time and respect folks’s cash and the pay-per-view buy, and respect the game of boxing and its contributors,” Espinoza stated. “To make the choice to make the largest star within the sport wait 45 minutes to an hour is a choice that, in my view, got here from individuals who both don’t perceive the game or don’t respect the game and its contributors and will by no means occur on a high-level occasion like this.”
