There’s one seriously over-the-top Sportstainment™ event taking place this Saturday night when the lineal and WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury meets the former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, in a feature attraction to kick off Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season of art, music, theatre, food, and sporting events.
Daniel Dubois will have learned more in his gilt edged opportunity to challenge defending unified heavyweight champion Oleksander Usyk than in his 18 knock out wins, on a night of Ukrainian pageantry, Usyk’s belt line, flashes of clinical boxing and Dubois’ knees, in Wroclaw’s Stadium in Poland on Saturday night.
Listening to DAZN’s Executive Vice President, Joe Markowski, defrag his hard drive about content consumption, scalability, optics, brand equity, sports fandom data, key markets and super-saver, ultra-flexible fan friendly payment plans in pretty much any interview he does, is a glorious but depressing lightening rod of where DAZN are at.
This coming Saturday night, Anthony Joshua returns to begin the probable third and final act of his heavyweight boxing career, pitting MGT 258’s main man against Michigan’s 989 Assassin, Jermaine Franklin.
Listen, we all know that modern boxing negotiations can go deep. Deep into a labyrinth of minutiae covering everything from fonts on promotional posters to the tread of the canvas, before we even get into the bloody meat of purse splits, rematch clauses and global broadcasting rights.
In the still slightly surreal yet likely more common sight of a boxing ring at the center of a Royal stadium in the swelter of a Saudi Arabian port city, Anthony Joshua lost his attempt to reclaim a clutch of unified world heavyweight titles from the man who took them in London’s Tottenham Stadium last September, Oleksander Usyk.
This Saturday night, Hughie Fury faces the Germany-based Romanian and perennial top-tier-tester Christian Hammer as part of the second Boxxer Sky Sports card at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, which also features Savannah Marshall, Chris Eubank Jnr, and hometown favorite Lewis Ritson.
On Saturday night, within the architectural zeitgeist of Tottenham Hotspur’s multi-sport auditorium, Anthony Joshua will defend his IBF, WBA, WBO & IBO Heavyweight world titles in an intriguing clash with former unified Cruiserweight boss Oleksander Usyk.
Matchroom Boxing’s decision to leave the success and security of their long relationship with the SKY Sports broadcasting machine back in July for a more collaborative partnership with DAZN was a significant one.
They argue that it is bringing eyeballs to boxing. But who are they?
They argue that it is saving boxing. But saving it from what?