Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. superfight is the biggest in boxing since ... when?

LAS VEGAS — There has been no sport over the past three decades or so with the ability to come out of nowhere and on one night to captivate the imagination of the sports world the way boxing can.

A major bout between two elite, and well-known, boxers will put the focus on the sport during the build-up and, primarily, on fight night. Most of the time, though, boxing hasn’t been able to capitalize on the momentum that those big fight nights have provided.

The latest superfight that has come along is Saturday's bout at T-Mobile Arena for the undisputed welterweight title between IBF-WBA-WBC champion Errol Spence Jr. and WBO champion Terence Crawford. They have a combined record of 67-0 with 52 knockouts.

It’s a massive fight in terms of its significance in the ring, and it has a chance to do extraordinarily well financially.

Boxing has slowly been cleaning up its act, and while problems like incompetent judging; sanctioning bodies which work to prevent, not make major fights; and fighters pricing themselves out of risky bouts are still issues, things are getting better.

There have been a slew of unification fights and bouts for the undisputed title this year, and more talented fighters are entering the sport than have been in years.

The Crawford-Spence bout has been promoted superbly, which isn’t always the case on mega-events, and the fighters have been full partners in trying to sell it.

The winner could wind up being recognized as not only the undisputed welterweight champion but also as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, though super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue made that a bit harder with his brilliant performance Tuesday in Japan during an eighth-round TKO of Stephen Fulton.

Crawford-Spence is, without doubt, one of the biggest fights in boxing since … when?

Some might say since April, when Gervonta Davis knocked out Ryan Garcia in the seventh round of a lightweight pay-per-view that had a live gate of $22.8 million and 1.2 million domestic pay-per-view buys.

Others would point to the third heavyweight title bout between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder on Oct. 9, 2021. We could go back farther to Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin I on Sept. 16, 2017, which ended in a majority draw. It could be the crossover boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and ex-UFC champion Conor McGregor on Aug. 26, 2017, which came to be known as “The Money Fight.”

Or perhaps it’s the biggest since the granddaddy of all pay-per-view shows, the May 2, 2015, bout between Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

To fit Crawford-Spence in its proper perspective, we need to define a big fight. It could be one or more of any of these:

• A bout in which the fighters’ styles are expected to mesh to create a classic battle.
• A fight with huge significance in the sport, such as for major titles or pound-for-pound supremacy.
• A bout like Mayweather-McGregor that wasn’t expected to be — and wasn’t — competitive in the ring but which would sell enormously well because of the fighters’ personalities and salesmanship. A money fight, in other words.
• A fight in which the skill level of the fighters is far better than that of others in the business.

Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza agrees that a mega-bout must contain all of those elements. And so he said that after mulling it over, he believes Crawford-Spence is the biggest fight since Fury-Wilder III.

Espinoza has been involved in boxing for decades, and he’s seen a gradual shift in the sport. There was a time beginning in the late 1980s where it was hard to put together the truly mega-fights, though often it was the fights one step down from that which were the hardest to get done.

He acknowledged the past flaws but said the sport has been heading in the right direction for the last several years.

“I think there has been a gradual change in the sport over the last few years,” he told Yahoo Sports. “If you take away the years with the COVID interruptions, I think you’d see a gradual, definitive and noticeable shift. These fights are happening more and more regularly. Wilder-Fury is a good example of that. There have been undisputed fights with guys like [Jermell] Charlo and Canelo.

“We’re seeing the best fighting the best far more regularly now, and I think it shows that there is momentum to the sport. The old criticism that the big fights never get made is ready to be retired. It’s not a perfect record, but it’s wrong to say the big fights don’t get made.”

Over the last 10 years, there have been numerous bouts which have occurred that meet three or more of the four points above used to define a good fight.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a pay-per-view fight, but most are because PPV revenues are generally needed to pay the exorbitant salaries top fighters demand.

So, going back to July 30, 2013, these are the fights that seem to hit most of those points which have been made in the last 10 full years that we can use to compare with Crawford-Spence. I won’t include Mayweather-McGregor since McGregor was making his pro boxing debut and few gave him a chance to win.

2013: Mayweather Jr.-Alvarez
2015: Mayweather Jr.-Pacquiao; Miguel Cotto-Alvarez; Fury-Wladimir Klitschko
2017: Anthony Joshua-Klitschko; Alvarez-Golovkin
2018: Alvarez-Golovkin II; Fury-Wilder
2019: Naoya Inoue-Nonito Donaire
2020: Wilder-Fury II; Vasiliy Lomachenko-Teofimo Lopez
2021: Wilder-Fury III; Joshua-Oleksandr Usyk
2022: Juan Francisco Estrada-Roman Gonzalez III; Alvarez-Dmitriy Bivol; Joshua-Usyk II; Alvarez-Golovkin III
2023: Davis-Garcia; Josh Taylor-Teofimo Lopez

If we rank those with a top five, it would come out with Mayweather-Pacquiao first, followed by Mayweather-Alvarez, Alvarez-Golovkin I, Wilder-Fury III and Alvarez-Golovkin II.

All five of those bouts were hotly anticipated, had huge stakes within the sport, looked good stylistically going into it and figured to do good business.

I think we have to go back to Alvarez-Golovkin I. Mayweather and Pacquiao was in another realm altogether; they were looked at not only as current greats, but among the greatest of all time. That recognition will come for Crawford and Spence, but it’s not here just yet, certainly not to the extent it was for Mayweather and Pacquiao.

But going into Alvarez-Golovkin I, it had everything Crawford-Spence has: The winner would be the best middleweight in the world and, perhaps, No. 1 pound-for-pound in the world. It was hotly anticipated and would sell hugely on PPV, the matchup was highly fan friendly and there was animosity between the fighters.

That puts Crawford and Spence into elite company and while it may not do as well financially as Davis-Garcia did in April, it’s going to do very well at the box office. And in the ring, this fight is the stuff of dreams as world-famous trainer Freddie Roach said.

“I have wanted to see this fight for a long time, and I can tell Spence and Crawford have wanted it too, which is another reason I have wanted to see this fight,” Roach said. “They want to know, and prove, which one is the best. It will be a close fight. While on paper, it has the look of Leonard-Hearns, I think it could end up being better.”

I expect an excellent bout on Saturday.

If it comes close to Leonard-Hearns, we’re in for one of the best nights ever in boxing.