Stephen Espinoza looks to Saturday and beyond

Stephen Espinoza says he is optimistic that this Saturday’s PBC on Prime pay-per-view headlined by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez versus Edgar Berlanga will prove a commercial success.

“It’s really picked up steam,” Espinoza, the former Showtime Sports president, who is now a consultant to PBC and its ongoing deal with Prime Video, told BoxingScene in Las Vegas this week. “I think initially, there was some concern about competitiveness, but I think some of the visuals helped, in the sense of seeing the size difference and seeing that Berlanga is unintimidated. He’s clearly got a lot of confidence. He’s young, he’s strong, he doesn’t have the experience at this level, but he’s got a punch. So I think this has got a lot more momentum than it did six weeks ago when the fight was announced.”

The reference to a perceived lack of competitiveness highlights a growing criticism of Alvarez: that, for as much as he has fought a cavalcade of dangerous opponents throughout his career, he is now consciously shying away from the toughest challenges. Most notably, David Benavidez has moved up to light heavyweight in search of big fights, frustrated by waiting for Alvarez, who has been keeping himself occupied against the likes of junior middleweight Jermell Charlo, Britain’s John Ryder and his countryman Jaime Munguia. Does Espinoza, who has worked with Alvarez for many years, feel that there is validity to that criticism? Or has Alvarez earned the right to do what he wants with the tail end of his career?

“I think this is one of the situations where both things can be true,” he said. “Yes, as boxing fans, you think that Canelo-Benavidez is a mouthwatering matchup, but you look at Canelo’s career and he’s been on the big stage for 12 years, at least, and he’s never really ducked anyone. And in fact, he’s known for taking tougher fights than probably he should have at many times. So, yes, I understand the frustration. I feel the frustration as well. But we’re also talking about a guy who’s fought everybody and anybody along the way, so I give him a little grace. Besides, I’m not ready to close the book on that fight until one or both of them retires. Just because it hasn’t quite happened on the timetable that we wanted doesn’t mean it may not happen in May or September of next year.”

Talking of frustrating timetables: The PBC and Prime partnership hasn’t exactly been blowing the doors off the potential opposition. There has been a handful of pay-per-views in 2024 but so far none of the promised non-PPV dates (though Caleb Plant vs. Trevor McCumby, which will be on Saturday’s pay-per-view, was originally slated to be the partnership’s first free card for Prime subscribers, and now Tim Tszyu vs. Bakhram Murtzaliev will now take that honor on Oct. 19). Has Espinoza found the transition from the smooth running of Showtime to the fits and starts of Prime at all frustrating?

“I think people underestimate the amount of work and effort that had to be done to get this thing rebuilt, and I understand why people are particularly interested,” he said. “They want to turn on their TV and watch a fight, and they’re not so into all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes to get there. But for the last 30 to 40 years, the U.S. boxing market has been defined by two premium cable networks that marketed the sport, that telecast the sport, that did production and did it at a very high level. And with the departure of Showtime, that infrastructure is gone. The marketing infrastructure is gone, the social media infrastructure, the TV production and all of it. And it’s been replaced by a system in which streamers typically are not that interested in handling much of production, if anything.

“So it is rebuilding an infrastructure, which we’ve all relied on for 30 years, from scratch. It’s having the rug pulled out and saying, ‘OK, let’s start from ground zero and build up everything.’ And that goes for the platform in terms of their technology and the way they make pay-per-views available and the way they market pay-per-views. It goes for the TV production, it goes for the operations. It goes for all of it. So it’s no surprise to anyone involved in the process that it’s been a case of walk before you run. But now I think it’s time for the pace to pick up, and I think we’ll see that between now and the end of the year.”

Specifically, Espinoza is optimistic that the final quarter of the year will see “at least one fight every month, and more likely two” on Prime.

Following Tszyu-Murtzaliev, he says, “the expectation is Tank [Gervonta Davis] coming after that. There’s an expectation there’s at least one more non-pay-per-view in 2024 after that, and potentially another pay-per-view. So between October, November and December, we’re looking at four or maybe five events.” 

As for the possibility of PBC finding an additional broadcast or streaming partner, Espinoza was equivocal – while recognizing that new platforms are essential for the sport and for the athletes.

“I think what people fail to realize in the big picture is HBO’s departure and Showtime’s departure probably took $200 to $250 million out of the market in terms of license fees and production,” he explained. “Plus 30 to 35 events a year. So there are a lot of fighters who are not as active as they’d like to be. There’s a lot of attention on what’s going on with the Saudis, but there are a lot of gaps in the rest of the market in terms of activity, in terms of keeping fighters busy, especially at the developmental level and with up-and-coming fighters. For this sport to continue to thrive, it’s going to have to develop some new media partners, without question.”

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcasted about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.