Poor Eddie must be gutted his number one superstar will be out of ring for a year. Who is going to be his new golden goose?
Canelo was out of contract with Matchroom after the last fight; there's zero guarantee they or DAZN will get his next one - entirely depends who he wants to fight.
Well he has the two biggest stars in boxing in Canelo and AJ. Has AJ now signed up to a muti fight deal with DAZN now. Benn vs Eubank will sell very big in the UK and will dramatically increase DAZN knownbility the subscribers. Has pound for pund greats such as Usyk and Bivol too.
Usyk isn’t with them. Bivol isn’t a draw. Benn vs Eubank is a big fight but will do a fraction of the buys it would have done on Sky. Deadzone PPV is a total faff for people.
My bad, did a little digging and Usyk Manager stated that they no longer have commitment co-promotion ties with Matchroom. https://www.intuboxing.com/latest-b...K-SIGN-MULTI-FIGHT-DEAL-WITH-MATCHROOM-BOXING https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.**...t-no-other-commitments-with-matchroom--168547
I'm not sure AJ is as big a pull as some people think now that he's left Sky and lost 3 of last 5 fights. I can only see fights against Fury and Wilder being massive- AJ fighting 'top 15' opponents won't be selling out big stadiums any more. And if Fury beats AJ in December his stock will be even lower. As for Benn, I don't think he's world class and also think Eubank beats him. The fight is a joke and shouldn't even be happening- you think Hearn would be a bit more cautious about big weight differences after selling Brook up the creek against GGG.
Multi-fight deal with AJ is massively devalued if he keeps losing. No point denying it, Hearn is very low on star quality at the moment. He’ll probably throw a fortune Gervonta Davis’ way soon enough. Even Canelo’s loss to Bivol has had a toll on his appeal to the more casual audience.
Won’t deter anyone from signing him. Just increases his appeal from a spectator point of view once he gets out.
The cynic in me says that Fury sending the contract to Joshua, and Usyk having interest in Wilder, is to increase the marketability of Fury v Usyk. Fury wants that shine from Joshua. Usyk wants traction in America, which a victory over Wilder will bring. I recall before the Joshua fight, Usyk and Fury had made public that talks had already started between the two parties, so these alternative fights are all very suspicious.
Canelo's 2 fight deal with Matchroom is now up and even if he does re-sign he won't be fighting for 12 months.
I think Eddie has taken his eye off the ball big time. He was number 1 promoter in UK by a mile (thanks to his Sky tie in) but his UK market seems to be an after thought these days. He wanted to crack America but he has rubbed nearly all the big promoters up so much they all despise him and have tried to freeze him out. The money bags owner of DAZN must be bemused at how his grand plan for boxing has turned out. It's not like it's been great but lost a ton of money- it's been shite and lost a ton of money.
It seems to me Eddie is not trying to crack America, he's trying to bubble up markets around the world (Australia, Italy, Spain, etc). Matchroom promotes other TV sports events all over the world so to an extent it shouldn't be a surprise. They've long maintained they supply content, they don't run sport (unless it's to control the content - like with snooker and darts, where they can bargain amongst multiple media buyers). This suits DAZN as it's clearly markets they'd find sports subscribers that Sky would never have been interested in, but it's a big gamble for them. Matchroom doesn't gamble, they'll take their percentages and scale up and down as they need to. Frank Warren tried it in Poland and India but seems to have gone back to his strength as the grass roots promoter in the UK; stick to what you know!
