Whenever boxing as a whole is able to resume, industry-wide common knowledge has suggested that the first wave of events will take place in venues that will remain closed to the public.

Such a dynamic would seem to be a hindrance to the biggest draws in the sport, many of whom benefit from incentives from ticket sales. Others are able to see the bigger picture, where exploring such an option would be the difference between remaining active and growing stale as the sport prepares for next steps in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

You can count Errol Spence Jr. on the side of those willing to give it a try. 

“For me, it don’t matter,” the unbeaten, unified welterweight titlist insisted during interview on Showtime’s All The Smoke podcast. “I mean, as long as my check the same.”

Spence (26-0, 21KOs) is coming off of a major breakout year in 2019, one where the Desoto, Texas native headlined two high-profile events which performed just as strong in Pay-Per-View sales as they did at the live gate. Wins over Mikey Garcia and Shawn Porter generated more than 600,000 PPV buys and 64,000 fans in attendance during his Fighter of the Year-level campaign, establishing himself as one of the more recognizable draws in the sport in addition to his status as one of the best pound-for-pound talents in the game today.

Extending that run one fight further to his 1st round knockout over Carlos Ocampo in June 2018, Spence has drawn in the vicinity of 77,000 fans to venues over his past three fights. Another capacity crowd was expected for a planned showdown versus former two-division titlist Danny Garcia, with the planned bout delayed first due to Spence sustaining injuries in a single car crash last October and then further postponed due to the current global health crisis.

Obviously, a fight on the elite level wouldn’t be considered for an event to take place behind closed doors. One for the sake of avoiding ring rust, however, will do just fine.

“We used to fight for free, so as long as that check the same we gonna get to it,” notes Spence, who has been out of the ring since a 12-round win over Shawn Porter (30-3-1, 17KOs) in their welterweight title unification bout last September. “It’s gonna be that same beatdown.

“As long as that check right, that means we gonna fight.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox