Tyson Fury’s PPV numbers have been leaked for his crossover fight last weekend against Francis Ngannou and they are altogether bad.
According to reports, Fury vs. Ngannou did a dismal 11.5K TV pay-per-view buys in the United States and 56,000 on ESPN+ PPV. It’s understandable why the event would bomb. The $79.99 price tag was too high.
If you want to pick a reason for why the Fury-Ngannou event bombed, you’d have to look at these factors:
- PPV price – $79.99. That number was way too high for fighters that aren’t popular with boxing fans in the U.S.
- Francis Ngannou not well-known to boxing fans
- Poor undercard with zero quality fights.
The numbers are so unbelievably poor that it would be crazy for the Saudis to go ahead with their plans to stage the Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk undisputed heavyweight championship fight in their country in February.
Fury-Usyk won’t likely attract large PPV numbers, considering neither of these two is popular in the U.S. Fury has in the UK, but it can’t be out of this world good.
It won’t be the hugest shock if the Saudi moneymen balk at the idea of placing the fight between Fury and Usyk in their country because these two can’t sell.
On top of that, they’re not considered the two best heavyweights in the division. There are better fighters than Fury in the division, beginning with Arslanbek Makhmudov. He would likely beat Fury, as well as a number of others.
We just saw Usyk get a gift in his fight with Daniel Dubois when the referee ruled a knockout in the fifth as a low blow. Many fans believe that Usyk feigned that it was low because the shot had knocked the wind out of him.
The lackluster undercard
Fabio Wardley vs. David Adeleye
Joseph Parker vs. Simon Kean
Carlos Takam vs. Martin Bakole
Arslanbek Makhmudov vs. Junior Anthony Wright
Jack McGann vs. Alcibiade Duran
Moses Itauma vs. Istvan Bernath
Fury “on the decline”
“I felt Ngannou won. It’s coming from a guy who was having his first professional fight against the best heavyweight on paper right now. Personally, I think Fury is slightly on the decline. He hasn’t had a very competitive fight since Wilder,” said Shane McGuigan to Secondsout, discussing Tyson Fury’s performance last Saturday night against Francis Ngannou.
“He [Fury] hasn’t had a good performance since the second Wilder fight [in February 2020]. The second Wilder fight was a brilliant performance from him. In the third one, he got hit too much. Yeah, he got up off the canvas and did the job.
“Dillian Whyte, not at elite level. He’s not one of the top boys, and Dereck Chisora far from the top boys,” said McGuigan, pointing out that Fury had been fighting lesser opposition in his two previous fights before facing Ngannou.
“If you break it down that way, you can understand why he [Fury] didn’t look the best, and I think potentially he can be on the slide. Ngannou didn’t know how to pace the fight. If he had one or two more fights beforehand of 10 rounds, he would have, ‘I’ll start the pressure here. I know what it feels like.’
“It’s a completely different sport. They [MMA fighters] can rest their legs; they can go to the ground if they’re good on the ground. Boxing is more of a continuous intensity. It’s more explosive in bursts. I was shocked, to be honest, and shocked with the way Ngannou approached himself.
“Teddy Atlas said, talking about Ngannou, that he felt that if he had started boxing at 17 or 20 years old, he would have been a world champion. He definitely would have been a very, very good fighter because he was athletic and he could pick up on things.
“Heavyweight boxing is less about skills and much more about physicality and attributes. It’s a slower pace. If you’ve got a great chin like Ngannou has got an unbelievable power, and you got a little bit of speed, which he does. If you put all those three three together, you’ve got a handful of a fighter.
“If you put someone like Zhilei Zhang in front of Ngannou because he’s bigger than him, and he’s an incredibly hard puncher, someone like him might knock him out. Styles make fights, and they especially do when you’ve got a guy like him.
“I just don’t think Tyson Fury is the right boxer on our roster to box Ngannou. Someone like Deontay Wilder would have teed him up and finished him. It’s hard to stomach because we’re avid fans and so proud of our world champions and so proud of our sport.
“Then you have a guy that is having his debut beating a guy that is proclaimed to be the best heavyweight on the planet; you can see why it is embarrassing. You can also understand why anything can happen in the heavyweight division. He was well-skilled,” Shane said about Ngannou.
“I would love to see Ngannou in competitive fights because I’d like to see him get paid a hell of a lot of money. He’s inherited a lot of boxing fans now because he held himself so well.
“He didn’t get real b**tchy after the fight. Yeah, he said one or two things, but that was more than fair. He’s a likable character. He’s grafted his whole life. Success has come to him later on in his life. I hope he makes the most amount of money that he can possibly make.
“That would be against guys like AJ. I would stay away from Wilder, and I would try to eventually get the Fury fight again because it’s so many question marks there. He doesn’t want to get knocked out and not get that fight again.
“He should take someone slightly lower level that’s got a little bit of vulnerabilities. I’m not saying that AJ, but AJ is a huge money fight for him. So that’s a massive money fight; Fury is a massive money fight.
“I think he should get himself back out in the mix and then look for a rematch or potentially AJ,” said McGuigan about Ngannou.
