Eddie Hearn appears to be sitting pretty right now as boxing’s broadcast war takes yet another dramatic twist in the United States.
Earlier this week the news leaked that PPV cash ‘Canelo’ Alvarez appears set to leave PBC for now to return to streaming platform DAZN for his next fight – likely against fellow Mexican Jaimie Munguia on Cinco de Mayo weekend.
The news is especially grim for Al Haymon’s operation given it has just recently entered into a new broadcast pact with Amazon Prime Video – which appears to centre mainly around pay-per-view. An area where ‘Canelo’ would have been a major cornerstone.
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DAZN meanwhile, with Hearn and Matchroom the the main contributor, has a terrific schedule of bouts on the schedule for 2024 – including:
March 8: Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou
April 20: Devin Haney vs Ryan Garcia
April 27: Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall 2
May 18: Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk
June 1: Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol
So as Hearn spoke this week to Ariel Helwani’s ‘MMA Hour’ (watch the full episode at the bottom of this page), he did so from an undoubted position of strength. And he took the opportunity to point out what he sees as the pitfalls of that PBC/Amazon Prime Video deal.
Matchroom and DAZN vs PBC and Amazon Prime
“I like our spot, I think we’re in a great position,” said Hearn.
“Again, we backed DAZN and they backed us many years ago when we believed streaming was the future. There’s been a lot of potshots from people saying ‘oh they’re on an app’. Right now, PBC are also on an app and I think they would do anything to be with DAZN right now.
“The Amazon deal looks to be a pay-per-view only model with no regular shows. It’s impossible to run a promotional company or a promotional business, and develop fighters, unless you have a schedule that can do so. You can’t just have pay-per-views.”
Hearn pointed to the first PBC PPV on Amazon Prime Video as a prime example of what he is talking about.
“I’ve been there before, when I was with Sky, we were doing so many pay-per-views, you end up kind of like stuffing a load of fights together to make them a pay-per-view. And if you look at the first offering on Amazon, coming up on March 30th, that’s a classic example of a card you’ve just bundled together to try and convince the consumer that it’s pay-per-view.
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“Tim Tszyu against Keith Thurman, I mean I find Tim Tszyu really exciting, nobody knows who he is in America. Keith Thurman hasn’t boxed for two years – it’s an absolutely dead fight. There’s some good stuff on the fight, ish, ‘Rolly’ against ‘Pit Bull’. But what you end up doing – you know the only way you can run your show on Amazon is pay-per-view so you have to build one. And if it’s the wrong time for your key stars… it’s okay putting Gervonta Davis against Frank Martin or something like that as a pay-per-view headline.
“It reminds me a little bit actually of when we were starting with DAZN. I did my first ever show on DAZN in Chicago [in 2018] – when I look back now, it was an unbelievable card. It was Jessie Vargas against Thomas Dulorme, it was Artur Beterbiev against Callum Johnson. There was three or four other world championship fights on there. It was a panic job. Jarrell Miller was fighting. It was ‘stick a load in and hopefully it’s big enough’. But it didn’t have the standout main event.”
The rules of PPV in the US
Hearn, not surprisingly then, feels that Thurman vs Tszyu PPV will not be a ratings/subs winner for Amazon. He says it just highlights again the major issues with pay-per-view fights everywhere.
“That’s the problem when you do a Thurman against a Tszyu – it’s just gonna bomb. If you continue to do pay-per-views, we always talk about the price point for the US market – $79, $89. It has to be ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, it has to be Haney/Garcia – it has to be the one that you as the consumer, the fight fan, say ‘I’m not missing it – boys, girls, let’s get round the house, let’s make a night of it’.
“That’s a Haney/Garcia, that’s a Canelo against Munguia, that’s a Joshua against Ngannou, that’s a Fury against Usyk – they’re pay-per-view fights. Not Thurman/Tszyu with Rolly on the undercard and Jarron Ennis against his mandatory. BOMB.
“And that is the problem with pay-per-view in this country, and worldwide as well.”
