Unbeaten welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. says he doesn’t need a promoter and doesn’t want one. Ye♈t he has formed his own promotional company and plans to begin signing fighters in the near future.
If that seems a bit two-faced🦩, it really isn’t. It’s really a testament to Spence’s growing popularity inside the ring and eageไrness to help others in launching their careers.
Spence, of DeSoto, Texas, has formed Man Down Promotions with the goal of signing fighters in the Dallas area and giving them their starts. He is hardly the first active boxer to start his own promotꦕional company. Nearly every major boxer has followed the example of Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather by being his own boss. But Spence, 28, is looking to take a more grassroots approach, while building his own career which is on the cusp of stardom.
“You hear stories over and over where guys are in the gym and they’re struggling,” Spence said earlier this week during a luncheon in Manhattan. “Some fight for 🐲free just to get a fight so they can build their record or they’re paying to get on cards or getting tied up in contracts and sitting on the shelf and wasting time. I want to help those guys out.”
Managed by Al Haymon, Spence has fought under the Premier Boxing Champions banner, shunning promotional companies such as Top Rank and Golden Boy Promot♛ions. Haymon, working in concert 𝔍with Showtime, has been enough to develop Spence into one of the hottest boxers in the sport.
The southpaw improved to 24-0 with his 21st knockout on June 16 when he dropped Carlos Ocampo with a body shot in the fir♕st round. The fight was held at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, where S෴pence drew a crowd of 14,000 and one of the highest ratings of the year on Showtime.
“What we saw is Errol transitioning from the next big thing to now being ‘The Man,’ ” said Stephen Espinoza, president of Showtime Sports. “His television ratings are growing. His ticket sales are growing, and his performances are continually top tier. Errol has proven the hype is real. For my money he’s boxing’s best fighter in boxing’s best division.”
After traveling to the United Kingdom to win the IBF belt by beating Kell Brook and defending in Brooklyn against former champion Lamont Peterson, Spence has put himself in the unique position of being able to call his own shots. The welterweight division is stocked with talent like Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Manny 𒈔Pacquiao and Terence Crawford. But Spence holds plenty of the leverage.
He is ex😼pected to return to the ring in the fall. Jessie Vargas has been mentioned as a possible opponent. Showtime will be eager to televise his bout, which is why Spence isn’t worried about signing a multi-fight deal with a promoter.
“Basically, Showtime is my promoter right now,” Spence said. “I’m fighting 🐻on TV. I’m getting the main slots and I’m basically doing what I want to do without having somebody tell me who I’m fighting and where I’m fighting. My manager comes to me and I have say-so in it. Everything is going good. Why change something. Everything is running smoothly. I don’t think I need to add anything to my team right now.”
Raised in the gyms around Texas, Spence knows other fighters aren’t so lucky and wants to help those who 🗹go unseen.
“There 🌃are𓃲 a lot of good fighters that are hungry and want to win and want to be successful, but don’t have the machine behind them to push them,” Spence said. “I feel like I can be that guy.”