Devin Haney vs. Regis Prograis event this Saturday, December 9th, is priced at $74.99 for non DAZN PPV subscribers and $59.99 for subscribers.
That price will be seen as a step too far for many boxing fans, as the Haney-Prograis headliner isn’t a big enough one to charge that price.
Unless a hardcore boxing fan, you might be too excited at seeing Montana Love, fresh off a sixth round disqualification loss to Steve Spark, taking on Liam Paro in the co-feature.
Is $74.99 too high for Haney vs. Prograis?
If DAZN cut the price in half or trimmed it down to, say, $20 for non-subscribers and $10 for subscribers, that would be a winner. But at $74.99 for non-DAZN subscribers, it’s not going to work, and it won’t be good for the careers of Haney or Prograis.
Well, maybe it’ll be good for Prograis because he’s expected to lose. The fewer people that see the fight, the better it is for him.
Complete DAZN card this Saturday
Regis Prograis vs. Devin Haney
Liam Paro vs. Montana Love
Ebanie Bridges vs. Miyo Yoshida
Andy Cruz vs. Jovanni Straffon
Beatriz Ferreira vs. Destiny Jones
Amari Jones vs. Quilisto Madera
Shamar Canal vs. Jose Antonio Meza
People would be more open to ordering the DAZN PPV card if it wasn’t coming so soon since last month’s David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade Showtime PPV event on November 25th.
That event was rumored to have brought in a poor 60K PPV buys, reflecting fans’ lack of interest in seeing Benavidez fight an older fighter.
What makes things worse is the lackluster undercard that is packaged with the Haney vs. Prograis main event.
“Are the matches something you’re going to write home about? Are the performances where you say, ‘Wow, I don’t care if it’s $150. I want to buy that on pay-per-view?'” said trainer Abel Sanchez to Fight Hub TV about Devin Haney’s high-profile fights in the last couple of years.
It’s too early in Haney’s career for him to be fighting on PPV, and it’s a bad idea for him to face Prograis for that type of fight. If the promoters are going to rush Haney onto PPV, they at least should wait until he’s facing a dangerous or popular guy like one of these fighters:
- Subriel Matias
- Teofimo Lopez
- Ryan Garcia
- Gervonta Davis
Is Haney too nice of a guy to be exciting?
“He’s [Haney] not hurting anyone. He’s not knocking somebody out. He’s not dropping them. Maybe he’s too much of a nice guy,” said Sanchez about Devin.
“Maybe he’s too much of a nice guy, and that projects to the TV, and people say, ‘What a nice guy he is. He’s got a lot of talent, but would I pay to see him again?’ The casual boxing fans want to be entertained.”
It’s not that Haney is too nice. His problem is that he’s not entertaining to watch because he holds a lot and is a mover like Shakur Stevenson. He doesn’t have much power and jabs, mostly.
You kind of have to be a big fan of Floyd Mayweather Jr’s fighting style to want to watch Haney, and you’d have to be a REAL big fan to want to pay $74.99 to watch him on DAZN PPV.
“I would pay to see Teofimo fight because of his issues, because of his problems,” said Sanchez. “That kind of helps him garner views because of the issues. People kind of feel sorry for him because he’s going through what he’s going through.
“Gervonta Davis is the same thing. That jail time didn’t do him no harm, and he can back it up inside the ring. Shakur is such a nice kid. Is he doesn’t what Matias did to Ergashev or what David [Benavidez] did in the fourth round where his eyes went back into his head? No, he’s not doing that.”
Sanchez is talking about fighters with inherently more entertaining styles than Haney, so it’s not fair. Haney will never be as exciting to watch as Subriel Matias, Benavidez, Ergashev, or Tank Davis. Shakur is even more boring than Haney, but he’s not fighting on PPV. Top Rank knows better than to try and put Shakur on ESPN PPV because it wouldn’t draw flies.
“Unfortunately, you can do ten great performances and one bad one, and you’re only as good as your last one,” said Sanchez about Shakur having looked good in his three previous ones before putting in a bad one against Edwin De Los Santos.
“But what a talent. Him [Shakur] and Haney are probably the top two talent-wise in that division, but are they a draw? Are they the guys that are going to captivate the audience? Not so much,” said Sanchez, failing to recognize that Haney no longer fights at lightweight.
Of course, Haney & Shakur won’t captivate audiences because they’re finesse fighters, and they cater to fans who enjoy seeing fighters hit and get away without getting nailed in return.
It requires a certain mindset to want to watch those types of fighters because it’s usually one-sided with one guy doing all the hitting and then running to avoid getting hit in return. It’s like a game of tag.
“Tim Bradley was one of the most boring fighters I’ve ever saw earlier in his career,” said Sanchez. “Then I saw him fight [Ruslan] Provodnikov [in 2013], and then I became a fan because of how he fought.”
Bradley only fought six more times after his war with Provodnikov, so Sanchez didn’t get a chance to see too much more of him before he hung up his gloves.
What Sanchez doesn’t realize is that Bradley continued to be a boring safety-first fighter after his battle with Provodnikov. That fight was the acception to the rule.
In Bradley’s match after that, he ran for twelve rounds against Juan Manuel Marquez and won an ugly split decision. That fight was identical to Shakur’s recent bout against Edwin De Los Santos in terms of being boring.
“He was outgunned, and he fought a fight. What a fight. Now, did he fight crazy and get hit with too many shots?” said Sanchez about Bradley’s fight with Provodnikov. “Yeah, I didn’t like that too much, but the fact that he made it a fight, I became a fan. I became a Tim Bradley fan, and I wasn’t before.
“I know he doesn’t care about what I think, but that’s what the casual fans want to see. They want to see warriors inside the ring. They’re putting themselves in that position,” said Sanchez.
