Oleksandr Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua II | Sky Sports PPV - 20 August 2022

[mickey1975]

When you are being asked to stump up the money for the most expensive PPV boxing show you expect to see an undercard to reflect the price

I don't. Not expected much since Wazza-King all nighters.

[tony1234]

When you are being asked to stump up the money for the most expensive PPV boxing show you expect to see an undercard to reflect the price

I don't. Not expected much since Wazza-King all nighters.

I can't remember the last PPV that had a stacked under card with a decent World title fight and a couple of British/Euro title fights on it

[Spud]

Its sad boxing is losing fans and even worse how much sky are going to sugar coat this fight as the fight of the century and worse “sensational” undercard.

I remember a few years back the BBBofC used to knock fights back to the promoter if they were not competitive enough.

[mickey1975]

I've seen my first "Usyk v AJ on here" sign. Must be legal too as it's a big brewery in a main tourist area.

[mickey1975]

I've seen my first "Usyk v AJ on here" sign. Must be legal too as it's a big brewery in a main tourist area.

I have no idea why I wrote that. It's on Sky...

[maverick23]

Its sad boxing is losing fans and even worse how much sky are going to sugar coat this fight as the fight of the century and worse “sensational” undercard.

I remember a few years back the BBBofC used to knock fights back to the promoter if they were not competitive enough.

The AJ/Usyk undercard has some relatively competitive fights on paper.

The show last night on Sky (bar the main event) didn’t. Given the amount of one sided fights/shows we get every week in the U.K (and in the last 20 years)., I’m not quite sure the board ever did a good job with knocking back non-competitive fights.

[tonyevs]

The show is clearly not bollocks. It’s a rematch between two of the best three heavyweights in boxing.

I hate PPV when it is done for the sake of it.

But some of the nonsense on here is just too naïve to be true.

It's a good fight. No doubt.

What's naïve, though, are the people who enabled PPV to become a thing in the first place. The buyer could have said no and there'd still be boxing.

I seen the birth of PPV in the UK - it has correlated to the demise of boxing as a mainstream viewing sport too.

The boxing household names in the 1990's moving from ITV over to Sky was the start. Then the PPV put up a bigger barrier.

Very few boxing superstars have been made purely from Sky in the last 25 years. This impacts on drawing viewers in and for the sport to grow.

I have never bought a PPV. In the earlier years I was too skint .. since then I have been happy to watch it for free the next day, if it was any good .. or avoid it if it stank.

[Spud]

I cant get over gullible Joe Public are.

I remember Haye/ Harrison .. it was Davids plan to be as controversial as possible. His view was
controversy sell tickets. How right he was PPV numbers were huge.

I detect a change of attitude in AJ, he seems a lot more mardy in interviews and I suspect he will ramp up the attitude to gain public support

Usyk hasnt got a bad bone in his body and I suspect he will do nothing interesting or eye catching to sell the fight.

I will say again the undercard is b*llocks … that will gain f*ck all interest other than avid boxing fans I suspect if you asked Joe Public they wouldn’t have a clue who anybody was.

[tonyevs]

When you compare it to the stacked cards UFC put on you really see how boxing fans get short changed.

[garethhop]

I cant get over gullible Joe Public are.

I remember Haye/ Harrison .. it was Davids plan to be as controversial as possible. His view was
controversy sell tickets. How right he was PPV numbers were huge.

I detect a change of attitude in AJ, he seems a lot more mardy in interviews and I suspect he will ramp up the attitude to gain public support

Usyk hasnt got a bad bone in his body and I suspect he will do nothing interesting or eye catching to sell the fight.

I will say again the undercard is b*llocks … that will gain f*ck all interest other than avid boxing fans I suspect if you asked Joe Public they wouldn’t have a clue who anybody was.

WTF? Haye/Harrison killed PPV until Froch and AJ came along.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I cant get over gullible Joe Public are.

I remember Haye/ Harrison .. it was Davids plan to be as controversial as possible. His view was
controversy sell tickets. How right he was PPV numbers were huge.

I detect a change of attitude in AJ, he seems a lot more mardy in interviews and I suspect he will ramp up the attitude to gain public support

Usyk hasnt got a bad bone in his body and I suspect he will do nothing interesting or eye catching to sell the fight.

I will say again the undercard is b*llocks … that will gain f*ck all interest other than avid boxing fans I suspect if you asked Joe Public they wouldn’t have a clue who anybody was.

WTF? Haye/Harrison killed PPV until Froch and AJ came along.

Froch wasn’t really a PPV seller. He sold arena’s but he wasn’t a PPV star.

[garethhop]

He got it going again after the Haye debacle and ended doing almost 1 million buys.

Froch was absolutley a PPV star.

[Ruthless-RKO]

He got it going again after the Haye debacle and ended doing almost 1 million buys.

Froch was absolutley a PPV star.

He did less than 100k on all of them bar Groves 2.

One of them was on PRIMETIME.

He did around 400k against Groves 2nd time around.

That was obviously heavily hyped due to their first bout, which wasn’t and that did just less than 100k.

[garethhop]

Youre wrong Ruthy mate. Never use BARB figures for PPV!

Groves/Froch 2 did 900k+

[Ruthless-RKO]

Youre wrong Ruthy mate. Never use BARB figures for PPV!

Groves/Froch 2 did 900k+

Not using barb. They’re inaccurate.

It was an actual article.

Edit: ignore me!
Sorry I was thinking of another fight.

It was the only fight to do past 500k.

[mickey1975]

Kessler 2?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Kessler 2?

Between 300k-400k buys.

[Spud]

So gents theres some great posts even though you disagree with me.

So, will the show be a financial success?

Will AJ announce hos retirement if he loses?

Will Eddie dump a lot of his british fighters if AJ loses and in turn Hearn loses his cash cow?

What next for Usyk? And will BT win the TV rights if its Fury?

[Ruthless-RKO]

So gents theres some great posts even though you disagree with me.

So, will the show be a financial success?

Probably do some decent figures still..

For everyone that might be struggling, there are still a lot of casual folk who don't need to check their wallets. There's been no hype though which is a shame because the boxers are already guaranteed their purses. But the good thing with hyping a fight, is it gets the fans going.

Will AJ announce hos retirement if he loses?

No, Hearn has already said, win or lose, he'll be out in December (assuming there's no injury)..

Will Eddie dump a lot of his British fighters if AJ loses and in turn Hearn loses his cash cow?

It already seems that Hearn is losing Brits. I don't know if he cares. DAZN is a tough sell and now already introducing PPV's so quickly. He seem's to be set with Benn for life and also trying to promote any GGG or Canelo fight to rake in anything he can.

What next for Usyk? And will BT win the TV rights if its Fury?

It won't be a mandatory so there wont be purse bids. As big as it is, it will be a similar Saudi situation. Highest bidder wins.

I don't know it Usyk is signed to a contract with Hearn or if it's a fight-by-fight deal. He's self promoted and has K2 behind him too. He can chose to negotiate himself without Hearn/DAZN.

[maverick23]

So gents theres some great posts even though you disagree with me.

So, will the show be a financial success?

Will AJ announce hos retirement if he loses?

Will Eddie dump a lot of his british fighters if AJ loses and in turn Hearn loses his cash cow?

What next for Usyk? And will BT win the TV rights if its Fury?

It’s already a financial success for the fighters and Eddie. I don’t think it will be for Sky but they can afford to lose a few million and not be too concerned by it.

AJ won’t announce his retirement if he loses. Obviously will depend on how the fight goes but he’s not the type to make rash decisions and there are still big fights out there for him if he loses.

AJ may be Eddie’s cash cow but Eddie will carry on. He’s got his DAZN deal in the U.K. to fulfill and giving up now would be a sign of defeat.

I think Usyk will sign with Top Rank and also do a deal with Sky. With Bob being involved with both I could see a co-promotion with Sky and BT. Makes no sense for Bob for it to go to purse bids.

[garethhop]

I still think the outcome of this fight may well be a controversial AJ points win.

[forcefraser]

Any news on who has the rights to show the fight in Europe?

DAZN been quiet. Sky have the UK, but what about the rest of the world?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Any news on who has the rights to show the fight in Europe?

DAZN been quiet. Sky have the UK, but what about the rest of the world?

It's DAZN for US and worldwide. Unless any particular country has said anything else.

[Glass Joe]

AJ loses, he will probably fight Chisora next

[garethhop]

Any news on who has the rights to show the fight in Europe?

DAZN been quiet. Sky have the UK, but what about the rest of the world?

It's DAZN for US and worldwide. Unless any particular country has said anything else.

Not announced.