Deontay Wilder, like the rest of us, is hugely excited about the upcoming fight between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia. Wilder, who was at last night’s bitter grudge fight between David Benavidez and Caleb Plant, spoke with Fight Hub, and the former WBC heavyweight champ had a stern word for the fight fans out there who “steal” pay-per-view events, this by watching illegal streams of fights, this to avoid paying anything like $50 to $90.
Wilder says fighters “risk their lives for other’s entertainment,” and that they deserve big pay-per-view numbers that equal big paydays. “Stop f*****g stealing pay-per-views,” is Wilder’s message to the fans.
“Stop stealing the f****** pay-per-views,” Wilder said. “We can’t make numbers, we can’t do numbers if everybody pirating the God damn pay-per-views and streaming them. That’s why the numbers are so down, and they’re gonna be down because everybody stealing them. These fighters work very hard to risk their lives for other’s entertainment. Let’s get some respect. Let’s watch these fights, let’s pay for these pay-per-views. If you can’t [afford to] pay for it alone, double up. Team up! Let’s come together.”
This is of course an interesting subject. There are, one could certainly argue, far too many pay-per-view fights out there these days, and a hardcore fight fan who is unwilling to miss a thing but cannot afford to pay so many hundreds of dollars or pounds per year, will say he or she has no option but to stream some of these fights. On the other hand, as Wilder has made clear, fighters at pay-per-view level are paid by the revenue a PPV fight brings in.
But stopping illegal streaming has proven to be a tough thing for the powers that be to do. Maybe Wilder’s suggestion of “teaming up” with friends when paying for a pay-per-view fight is the best and fairest thing to do. In a nutshell, you are stealing from a fighter if you illegally watch his or her fights via a stream.
Will YOU be buying the Davis-Garcia fight, and all the other big PPV fights that will come at us this year? Deontay Wilder has spoken!