In 2017, Showtime emerged as the go-to network to watch some of the biggest fights with the biggest names.

Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor drew the second biggest buy-rate with the second overall revenue in the history of boxing. In May, Errol Spence cemented star-in-the-making status, defeating Kell Brook for the IBF welterweight title.

Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua rejuvenated the division, knocking out Wladimir Klitschko in the 2017 fight of the year and one of the greatest fights in the history of the heavyweight division.

WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder continued his reign of terror with two knockouts to remain undefeated in 39 fights. Joshua and Wilder appear to be on a collision course this year to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the world in almost 20 years.

What will 2018 bring for the industry leader? The executive president of Showtime Sports Stephen Espinoza sat down with Sporting News to recap 2017 and a whole bevy of topics heading into their first major card of the year on Saturday when Spence defends his title against Lamont Peterson.

MORE: Everything you need to know about Spence vs. Peterson

(Editor's note: This interview was conducted prior to the official announcements of Wilder vs. Ortiz and Joshua vs. Parker.)

Sporting News: How happy were you with the PPV buys and the financial aspect of Mayweather-McGregor?

Stephen Espinoza: We were thrilled. There was certainly a lot of talk about it breaking the Mayweather-Pacquiao record. The Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight was literally years in the making and had a built-in marketing lead time that few events have ever had. Mayweather vs. McGregor was at the other end of the spectrum. It came together extremely quickly and there were only 72 days between the announcement of the event and the event itself.

To be able to pull together the event itself, to work in collaboration with the UFC, which had never been done before on a sporting event, and to coordinate and put it all together successfully enough to do over $600 million in revenue, it exceeded all of our expectations. We would have loved to set another record. Certainly no one is disappointed at over four-million pay-per-view buys and over $600 million total worldwide revenue.

SN: With hindsight being 20-20, if you guys would have had say 60 more days, do you feel the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao numbers would have been shattered?

SE: I don’t think that more time would have made that much of a difference. The only difference more time would have made is that all of us working on the event probably would gotten to eat and sleep more than we did in those ten weeks for the promotion. Really, the thought process is this is a unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we had to strike while the iron was hot because this thing picked up momentum that carried itself. We didn’t want to drag it out and lose momentum.

On the downside, there were a variety of reasons why we didn’t break the record. Piracy has always been an issue. It’s a bigger issue in 2017 than it was in 2015. It’s just the nature of technology. At the outset of this, if you would have said to us that you are going to get within five percent of breaking the record than we all would have been thrilled with that result.

SN: Was Floyd happy with the final numbers of the show?

SE: He’s a competitor and he wanted to break his own record. At the end of it, we both had to laugh when I said, "Look, we are just competing with ourselves." Floyd and Showtime now together have accounted for the top three highest grossing pay-per-views of all-time. So, whether Mayweather-McGregor was No. 1 or Mayweather-Pacquiao was No. 1, he still has the top three. He’s just competing with himself for the top positions.

Ultimately, it was more important to him than the financial importance of the event was the enjoyment and substantive performance and experience for the fans on this one. Because it’s definitely going to be his last fight. He wanted to go out not just on a spectacle, but an enjoyable fight as well. Clearly, he made an extra effort to do that and engage; to sort of be a different Floyd Mayweather than he had usually been which was more aggressive, less cautious and it resulted in an enjoyable fight.

SN: I wasn’t going to bring it up, but you led into it with your last answer. What percentage would you put Floyd ever stepping inside the boxing ring again?

SE: I’d be very, very surprised. He’s clearly still performing at a very high level. He certainly still could perform from the physical standpoint. From that, there’s always the temptation. Some guys retire when they can’t physically do it anymore. Floyd is still really physically capable of great performances. But when you remember that he’s been in this sport for 22 years and the been the face of the sport for most of the last decade.

He’s set records and achieved things that not only no one would think he would ever achieve but I don’t think will be surpassed in the foreseeable future. There’s not much really left to do. After 22 years, he’s done it all. I’d be very surprised if he wants to do another event.

SN: Mayweather vs. McGregor seemed to be the highlight of 2017. Overall though, Showtime had an amazing year in boxing. You are at the top of the food chain. It begins and ends with you. The guy at the top gest the credit but also gets the blame. What attributed to the success of Showtime Boxing in 2017?

SE: Some of it is just the process itself coming to fruition. Back when we first got Floyd, we looked at the welterweight division as a whole and said there were a lot of young guys who are potential stars. We said, "Let's develop them to the point and fast forward three years." All of a sudden, we have Errol Spence, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter and the other young guys coming up. It’s a little bit of the plans of the divisions we focused on are now coming to fruition.

I’d also say the other factor is the conscious effort by our partners, the fighters and the promoters to help elevate the sport. When you look back at 2017, I think it was the year when people say boxing made the decision to bare down and put its best foot forward. It’s super competitive. There’s a ton of content of all types including sports. In order to break through the noise, you have to be doing big, buzz-worthy, noisy events. There’s a huge audience for boxing worldwide but they're desperate for quality fights. And it was the year that boxing as a whole doubled-down and decided that we are going to give everyone the fights they wanted. We were thrilled to be at the forefront of that in delivering most of the big memorable fights of 2017.

SN: You see that ESPN has made a commitment to boxing with their deal with Top Rank, HBO is looking to rebound. From talking to fans and people in sports media, it appears your biggest competition right now is ESPN. What do you make of ESPN getting into boxing and how do you combat the steam they are starting to gain?

SE: I think it’s a positive thing that ESPN is in the sport. I welcome them and anyone else whose going to do good fights. I think the key is getting networks participating in the sport that are committed to it, understand the kind of fights that represent the sport well and are committed to making those kind of fights. If ESPN or any other network is coming in and supporting the sport and the doing the kind of fights that help build a fan base, then I welcome them.

It will be a rising tide lifting all boats, but this is not an experiment for us. We’ve been in this sport a long time and at the highest level. We’re going to do continue to do that. We are proud of the fact that we had a high-level quality of fights and we did it without having to rely on pay-per-view. We are a subscription service. We are committed to giving our subscribers the highest quality we can. We will go to pay-per-view occasionally, but that’s not our bread-and-butter. We are about providing those quality fights consistently on Showtime.

SN: Showtime aired the Katie Taylor fight near the end of 2017. Claressa Shields headlined a card on Jan. 12. It’s nice to see women’s boxing start to get some of the recognition it deserves. Errol Spence vs. Lamont Peterson takes place on Jan. 20 and Mikey Garcia returns on Feb. 10. What kind of fights do you want to see on Showtime in 2018 and what can fans expect in the calendar year?

SE: When we started this three or four years ago, Part 1 was to develop a core group of fighters in several divisions. Part 2 is then to match them tough and ultimately against each other. Part 3, if possible, we want to encourage and facilitate the unification of titles. I think there are several divisions where that’s possible. Certainly in the welterweight division. At 140, in the Mikey Garcia fight, you have two world titles on the line and well on our way there. If we get Joshua and Wilder, there could be a unification there. We’d like to use those fights to address some of the casual fans biggest complaints about the multiplicity of belts and the confusion that goes along with it.

If we can encourage and facilitate the crowning of a single champion in some of these divisions then I think we have achieved something good for the health of the sport but also something historic.

SN: Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder is the fight many boxing fans want to see. Joshua will be fighting Joseph Parker and Wilder will finally face Luis Ortiz. If both guys get through those hard tests, do you think it happens?

SE: If they both win, hopefully a unification or an undisputed heavyweight championship fight between Wilder and Joshua before the end of 2018. I think a Wilder vs. Joshua fight has risen to the top of the list in terms of the biggest fights in the sport. You have two great personalities, two great athletes and the potential to have a unified heavyweight champion and maybe the most meaningful heavyweight fight in 15 years.

SN: Is that a PPV fight?

SE: I think so. Properly done, it probably is. Again, it’s not necessarily a goal of ours, but Joshua is a pay-per-view fighter in the United Kingdom and sells out stadiums. It will probably take pay-per-view revenue here in the United States to get him over here to fight Wilder. If that’s what it takes to get the fight done, then we will go down that road. I think boxing fans will understand.

If you want to occasionally eat the filet mignon, you have to occasionally pay filet mignon prices. But the key is to have to really, really good steaks week in and week out on Showtime, and occasionally ask when necessary to go on pay-per-view.

Steven Muehlhausen is an MMA and boxing writer and contributor for Sporting News. You can listen to his podcast, "The Fight Junkies" here . You can email him at stevemuehlhausen@yahoo.com and can find him on Twitter @SMuehlhausenMMA .