Showtime will distribute another high-profile Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view fight FOX Sports executives initially believed they would televise.

BoxingScene.com has learned that Showtime will handle production and marketing of the Errol Spence Jr.-Yordenis Ugas fight April 16 in Arlington, Texas. Spence (27-0, 21 KOs), of DeSoto, Texas, and the Cuban-born, Miami-based Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) will fight for Spence’s IBF and WBC welterweight titles and Ugas’ WBA belt at AT&T Stadium, the home venue of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

Showtime previously out-bid FOX for the right to distribute the Canelo Alvarez-Caleb Plant super middleweight title unification fight, which Alvarez won by 11th-round technical knockout November 6 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Since then, Showtime has distributed the Gervonta Davis-Isaac Cruz pay-per-view fight December 5 and FOX Sports televised the Luis Ortiz-Charles Martin pay-per-view show January 1 and the Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios pay-per-view event this past Saturday night.

FOX Sports distributed each of Spence’s past three fights – victories over Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia that all headlined pay-per-view events. Showtime televised each of Spence’s previous three fights – wins against Kell Brook, Lamont Peterson and Carlos Ocampo – live on that premium cable channel.

Al Haymon’s PBC has output deals with FOX Sports and Showtime.

FOX Sports picked up its fourth-year option on its PBC deal late last year at a reduced rate for license fees. As part of that option year, FOX will televise fewer PBC cards overall on free TV and its basic cable channel, FS1, in 2022.

Showtime – which, like BoxingScene.com, is owned by ViacomCBS – continues to televise at least one “Showtime Championship Boxing” card per month. It also airs regular installments of its long-running prospect series, “ShoBox: The New Generation.”

PBC and Showtime have aggressively pursued Alvarez for a return engagement with those two companies for the Mexican superstar’s next fight, which could take place May 7. If the four-division champion chooses to stay with PBC and Showtime, he would fight WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) in his next fight, a 168-pound championship match.

BoxingScene.com has confirmed, however, that Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) is seriously considering accepting a two-fight deal from DAZN that could reach $100 million in total value.

If Alvarez were to return to DAZN, which streamed each of his six bouts before he beat Plant (21-1, 12 KOs), he would box unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) in his first fight, presumably on May 7. If the Guadalajara native were to beat Bivol, he would finally face rival Gennadiy Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) a third time in a super middleweight title fight later this year.

A third Alvarez-Golovkin clash also would hinge on Golovkin, who owns the IBF and IBO middleweight titles, defeating WBA world middleweight champ Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) in a 160-pound title unification fight that has yet to be rescheduled from its original date of December 29. The Golovkin-Murata match was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Murata’s home country of Japan.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.