In addition to the fight being somewhat anticlimactic, there were other issues for DAZN PPV the night of Canelo-GGG III, writes George Gigney
transmissions
DAZN PPV is now officially available in both the US and UK. It hasn’t started off particularly well. The trilogy fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin was not a memorable one, certainly not living up to the drama of their first two meetings, although this cannot be contradicted by the broadcast itself.
Some come out of the blue to insist that a 40-year-old Golovkin was never going to cause Canelo as much trouble as he did when they last saw each other several years ago, and that DAZN should have known before making this a pay-per-view. However, not many were making that argument before the fight took place; there was a lot of interest in this.
Before we look at what went wrong for DAZN, it’s worth noting that they offered two commenting options: one with commenters from the US and the other with those from the UK. This is in response to feedback from British fight fans asking DAZN to provide UK commentary options for cards taking place in the US.
Although the execution was poor. Apparently the UK comment was being made from a studio rather than ringside. It was obvious from the start that the UK commentators were not in Las Vegas to call the action and the lack of a tangible connection to the fights was apparent.
It looks bad that DAZN hasn’t brought the UK commentary team to Las Vegas for this PPV event. If you expect people to pay a premium, the product must be worth it.
Unfortunately, the US comment was not exactly a better option. As we have seen in previous DAZN broadcasts, their American commentators cannot remain impartial while announcing fights. They also have a tendency to yell at each other and just do the wrong thing. Golovkin, who goes by the ring moniker ‘Triple G’, was at one point referred to as Triple H. For those who don’t know, Triple H is a legendary WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) superstar.
Slips of the tongue do happen from time to time, but mistakes like this become an obvious red flag on big pay-per-view shows.
DAZN also had some kind of simulcast with Barstool Sports. Luckily we UK fans weren’t subjected to that, but for those who, for whatever reason, selected this viewing option, they were rewarded with racism and an offensive amount of fratbro talk. At one point, male chatterers on this version of the broadcast questioned how many members of the fans who attended the fight were part of the Mexican cartel, inferring that only Mexicans involved in organized drug trafficking could afford tickets.
The idea of ​​offering an alternative transmission, a bit out of the ordinary, is really interesting. It’s a shame that DAZN chose to partner with Barstool to do so. Although it’s not hard to see why; Barstool Sports has a huge audience. There are members of the Barstool team who provide solid coverage of combat sports, but unfortunately they did not participate in this broadcast.
There were also a number of reports from people claiming to have had trouble even watching the main event on the DAZN app. Apparently, some streams started buffering mid-fight, only to then jump into post-fight interviews, revealing the winner.
With that being said, there has never been a PPV stream on any platform that has gone off without a hitch for someone somewhere in the world. What we’ve seen from DAZN in the past is the ability to quickly adapt and improve the user experience on the app, so we expect that trend to continue after this weekend.
websites
It was reported in the Daily Mail that Chris Eubank Snr had pulled his son out of the fight with Conor Benn within a few weeks out of fear that Eubank Jnr would make the contracted 157lb catchweight. As was probably intended, the news spread like wildfire and the likes of Billy Joe Saunders and Benn himself took to social media to poke fun at Eubank Jnr.
Of course, it all proved to be a lot of hot air as the Sauerlands, who promote Eubank Jnr, made it clear that they have a contract with Junior, not Senior.
It’s a catchy headline, but the Mail should have done some basic follow-up reporting to get confirmation that Eubank Snr actually has no control over whether or not the fight goes on. Still, it sparked even more talking points surrounding a fight that looks like it could be huge here in the UK.
ESPN’s Mike Coppinger reported that “all material terms” have been agreed to for a fight between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. The contracts are now apparently in the hands of their respective legal teams to toughen language and clauses.
If this goes well, it would be a very important fight for the sport. Also, it could happen within weeks of a fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. That’s a downright crazy end of the year.
podcast
Deontay Wilder sat down with the Last Stand podcast to discuss his upcoming fight with Robert Helenius and his plans for the future beyond that. The most interesting sound bites came from her comments about Fury and Joshua.
Unfortunately, Wilder is still selling the line that Fury somehow cheated in their second fight against each other, and he’s also convinced they’ll meet for the fourth time. One would hope that, with some distance and hindsight, Wilder might have put his animosity toward Fury behind him.
He also had some choice words for Joshua, who claimed that he has been “created” rather than a natural fighter.
boxing in the box
24th September
Joe Joyce-Joseph Parker
BT Sport Box Office
Coverage begins at 6 pm
Maxi Hughes-Kid Galahad
DAZN
Coverage begins at 7 pm
