BoxRec

3 years on from their 'groundbreaking' deal with DAZN. Obviously 2020/21 has been impacted hugely but we are still some time on from the deal that would in Hearn's words lead to.... "This stable will surpass anything in the world. Within 12 months, we will have by far the strongest stable ever seen in world boxing"

Originally planned to show 16 fight nights a year for 10 years - "“Our plan is for 16 shows a year which includes 12 traditional championship fight nights and four absolute jambusters. That means monster, pay-per-view style shows but for no extra fee. We will be signing the big-name world champions and making sure they box two, three or four times a year. We can deliver for all fighters across our 16 shows.”". Matchroom USA now confirmed reducing to 10 shows per year. Based on the DAZN deal, that's $10 million per show, but actually you suspect some of that money is heading south of the border for the Mexican enterprise.

Let's see what they've put on in the USA since the deal was announced.

18/19 - 12 US Fight Nights (Vargas Vs Dulorme, Andrade Vs Kautondokwa, Jacobs Vs Derevyanchenko, Miller Vs Dinu, Andrade Vs Akavov, Bivol Vs Smith Jnr, Farmer Vs Carroll, Rungvisai Vs Estrada, Haney Vs Moran, Joshua Vs Ruiz, Andrade Vs Sulecki, Haney Vs Abdullaev)
19/20 - 6 US Fight Nights (GGG Vs Derevyanchenko, Usyk Vs Witherspoon, KSI Vs Logan Paul, Jacobs Vs Chavez Jr, Andrade Vs Keeler, Garcia Vs Vargas)
20/21 - 9 US Fight Nights so far(Haney Vs Gamboa, Jacobs Vs Rosado, GGG Vs Szeremeta, Canelo Vs Smith, Canelo Vs Yildrim, Estrada Vs Gonzalez, Andrade Vs Williams, Canelo Vs Saunders, Haney Vs Linares)

Some decent fights in there no doubt. Is there a single one in there that couldn't have been made pre-DAZN? No. Any new stars? Haney perhaps. What about the bona fide elite he promotes - GGG, Mikey Garcia, Andrade? Nothing of note.

And finally, where are the Charlos, WIlder, Fury, Pac Man, Spence Jr, Lomachenko, Lopez Jr, Crawford, Inoue, Josh Taylor, Porter, Tank, etc currently fighting? These were the kind of stars that were promised.

I wonder where we will be with DAZN UK in 3 years time comparing back to the promises of the last few weeks.

Yeah it’s been pretty lame tbh, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt due to the Covid situation. Definitely needs to pick up soon though.

Eddie did try to sign PBC guys. Offer them deals, but those guys promote themselves. A bunch of mini-Mayweather wannabes.

Top Rank have the best stable.

I agree with Mickey that Top Rank have the best stable in the US but they don’t always match their best fighters and as we saw in the last couple of weeks (with Stevenson and Inoue) they have quite a few mismatch main events.

I think Eddie overestimated his own promotional ability and underestimated how difficult it is to promote in the US. He spent 10 years becoming a reasonably big name in U.K. sport, he was helped by the no-context stuff and he’s out on some massive fights.

He thought he’d start at a high level in the US whilst it’s difficult to get relationships with TV networks for promotional stuff and PR agencies.

He thought he could take good fighters (like Andrade, Jacobs) and make them stars like he did with Froch/Bellew etc. whilst he’s found it far tougher and has massively paid over the odds for poor fights.

I think they’ve found a model that works now. They needed evolve their business model post Covid and they’ve seemingly done it fairly well. Focus on shows they know will turn the dial (like Canelo), focus on the Mexican market and prop that up with good world title fights (like Haney/Linares).

I would still say though that out of all of the networks and including PPV that it’s either DAZN or ESPN that deliver the most value in the US. Fox and Showtime individually don’t come close in my opinion and are far too quick to go to PPV on top of the network costs.

Is Matchroom USA still around

peter barlow wrote: ↑03 Aug 2021, 19:56 Is Matchroom USA still around

Yep - they’re waiting to see what’s happening with Canelo and then other shows will be announced around that.

maverick23 wrote: ↑04 Aug 2021, 00:44

peter barlow wrote: ↑03 Aug 2021, 19:56 Is Matchroom USA still around

Yep - they’re waiting to see what’s happening with Canelo and then other shows will be announced around that.

Yeh, like Dil is literally on hold until We know when Canelo is fighting.

Matchroom USA were silly to pay 7 million to Mikey Garcia to fight in a nothing fight. Fair play to Garcia thou

Glass Joe wrote: ↑04 Aug 2021, 10:57 Matchroom USA were silly to pay 7 million to Mikey Garcia to fight in a nothing fight. Fair play to Garcia thou

Well it was DAZN who folked..

It's not as bad as paying $3m to Vargas..

Thats how boxing works, shows are put together on money mainly from tv money.

Eddie tried to poach a load of PBC fighters thinking his cheque book would speak volumes. Little did he realise that the evil scourge of boxing Al Haymon had their loyalty and not one took the bait. PBC are head and shoulders the best promotional outlet (or whatever you want to call them) in the US. Top Rank, Matchroom USA and Co don't come close.