Co promoted and broadcast with PBC. PBC can’t put the level of money needed for a AJ vs Wilder fight. It does 200-300k buys in US. Going to do $15-18m in revenue AJ almost makes that for a stadium fight against Parker.
If AJ wins his next 2 fights the AJ vs Fury fight will happen back end of 2023. They stand to make over $50m each. Money talks.
Dell Boy Joshua knocks over 2 puddings then gets badly pumped again when he faces his 2nd live opponent and 3rd live fight. Would be the most degrading humiliation and post fight meltdown seen in a boxing ring. Would be shocked if we saw Dell Boy Joshua in with any live fighter next such as Bakole, Joyce, Wilder or Dubois and more likely his next fight will be more like a stale low risk rematch against Paint Dry Parker or Dullian Whyte.
I don’t think so. Honestly I don’t think he’s known at all in the U.S. Why would he be? The only people who have Dazn in the U.S. are hardcore boxing fans, and a fair amount of even those people don’t have it. And that’s been his exposure here for the most part. Nobody in the U.S. outside of boxing fans knows what a cruiserweight even is. Joshua held most of the heavyweight championship belts for a period. His results were reported on by ESPN, which is the main source of sports news for most Americans — it’s the No.1 sports network. Usyk’s? Not so much. AJ’s win over Wlad was carried in the U.S. and was probably seen by more people in America than all of Usyk’s fights put together. And the Joshua vs. Wilder speculation/negotiations were reported on widely. Joshua doesn’t have a high profile in the U.S., but at least he has a profile. Usyk does not.
Usyk has headlined in America, beat Americans in America and is well known through being Loma's mate etc. When Usyk's face got shown on the big screen at MSG during Loma v Commey he got a big cheer. I was in New York for Joshua v Ruiz and outside of the Brits that travelled over nobody knew who or cared who AJ was... most Americans weren't even aware there was a fight on at MSG.
LOL. So when his fellow countryman Loma was fighting in an arena full of Ukrainian Americans, he got a big cheer when his face came on the screen? Yeah, you’d expect that. But let him walk down any street in any city on a random day and no one would know who he was to stop him for an autograph. Yes, AJ’s profile is low. But people have seen him (more people saw AJ-Wlad in the U.S. than all of Usyk’s fights combined, including Usyk-AJ I and II … no one even wanted that on cable TV so it ended up on Dazn, which few people have). AJ is better known now than he was when he lost to Ruiz … heck that fight alone got more mention and coverage on ESPN than anything Usyk has done. You’re mistaken if you think more people in the U.S. know who Usyk is than know who AJ is.
What about Fury walking around the streets of the big cities in the US - would he be recognised by most people?
He’d be recognized by a lot more people than Usyk or AJ for sure but not as many as would recognize Wilder (although Wilder is often mistaken in public for being LeBron James, the best-known basketball player lol). Fury’s exposure to U.S. audiences via ESPN, CNN and other outlets due to his fights with Wilder (which took place in the U.S.) as well as all the commercials for those events far outweighs anything Usyk or AJ have had. But I wouldn’t say he has star power in America, just that there’s some familiarity. Him vs. an unknown (to almost everyone) EE isn’t a draw in the U.S. A U.S. network or pay channel like Showtime could have had the rights for AJ-Usyk for a song but nobody cared or bothered with it. Dazn got it by default. We weren’t even sure if it would be carried at all in the U.S. until, what, maybe a week before … and it landed on an app that’s more obscure than most with no advertising. That should tell you something.