Eddie Hearn is skeptical about the chances of PPV success for the March 30th Tim Tszyu vs. Keith Thurman event by PBC on Amazon Prime Video PPV in Las Vegas.
Hearn questions the PPV viability of the event, which lacks a high-level fight for the main event. Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) is an old 35 and hasn’t seen action since 2022.
Hearn notes that it’s tough to attract casual boxing fans to PPV events nowadays, and you’ve got to have a really great headliner fight to attract fans.
He feels that Tszyu (24-0, 17 KOs) isn’t a household name with casual boxing fans, and Thurman has been out of the loop since 2017. He’s not kept his career going, and he is another Adrien Broner type of fighter who only rarely fights once every two+ years.
Many of the fans who knew about ‘One Time’ Thurman many years ago no longer follow the sport, and it’s just a small few who know who he is. Tszyu’s management probably wasn’t aware that Thurman wasn’t the star that he used to be seven to ten years ago.
Can Tszyu-Thurman Hook Casual Fans?
“The PPV market is so difficult now that you’ve got to be careful with the product,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV, talking about his reaction to the news of Tim Tszyu fighting Keith Thurman on March 30th on Amazon Prime Video PPV in Las Vegas.
The undercard for Tszyu has these fights:
- Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero vs. Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz
- Erislandy Lara vs. Michael Zerafa
- Sebastian Fundora vs. Serhii Bohachuk
Those are fights that will attract casual boxing fans to order the March 30th card on Amazon Prime PPV, unfortunately.
“I’m sure it’ll be a great night of boxing. The fan, the casual PPV fan that you need to engage, is not going to go, ‘Tim Tszyu against Thurman. Yes, let’s get everyone around to watch that,” said Hearn.
The casual boxing fans won’t be excited about seeing Tszyu vs. Thurman because they don’t know these guys. Tszyu has only been shown on U.S. TV a few times, and Thurman wrecked his career by not staying active.
“They’ve got to deliver something. It’s not like it’s rubbish. It’s a good night of boxing, but how many buys is it going to do? That’s the problem with PPV at the moment,” said Hearn.
“We’ve gone from, ‘You don’t do a PPV unless it does 2 or 300,000’ to ‘Even if it does 50,000 buys, we’re still going to,'” said Hearn.
