Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev highlights DAZN boxing lineup
It’s a bold statement considering how long the sport has been around, but John Skipper isn’t shy about pronouncing the upcoming boxing schedule on DAZN as the greatest of all time.
The live streaming service announced Friday it will distribute the WBO light heavyweight championship bout on Nov. 2 between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Alvarez, the lineal middleweight champion, will be moving up two weight classes to challenge Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KOs) for his 175-pound belt. A win would give Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) a world title in four weight divisions.
“Kovalev is a dangerous puncher, and he’s naturally the bigger man,” Alvarez said in a statement. “But that’s the kind of challenges and risks that I like to face.”
It adds spice to DAZN’s impressive fall and winter lineup. What Skipper, the executive chairman of DAZN, called “boxing season” began Friday night at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, where unbeaten lightweights Devin Haney and Zau Abdullaev met in a title eliminator. On Saturday, DAZN will present Jaime Munguia defending his WBO junior middleweight championship against Patrick Allotey from Carson, Calif.; and on Oct. 5, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fights for the IBF middleweight championship against Sergiy Derevyanchenko from Madison Square Garden.
On Oct. 12, former undisputed cruiserweight championship Oleksandr Usyk makes his heavyweight debut with a bout against Tyrone Spong in Chicago, and on Dec. 7, DAZN will feature the rematch for the heavyweight championship between Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua from Saudi Arabia.
Skipper, the former ESPN president, said planning a consistent schedule for boxing is much like setting a schedule for other sports.
“When a league schedule comes out, you know what to expect, you know who’s playing on Monday night and you know what’s a good game,” he said. “So we’re going to market this as a season of boxing. We need it because we’re trying to drive a subscription service, and if you want people to sign up for a year, you need fights in September, October, November, December, which we now have.”
DAZN launched its boxing business a year ago and has taken the sport by storm, signing Alvarez, Golovkin and other major fighters to long-term deals. Though HBO ended its 40-year involvement in boxing, other platforms remain. British heavyweight Tyson Fury returns to the ring Saturday night in Las Vegas where he faces Otto Wallin on ESPN+. The Premier Boxing Champions has deals with Fox and Showtime. DAZN is hoping a consistent schedule will lure its share of subscribers. Additional bouts are planned for Nov. 7, Nov. 9 and Nov. 14.
“We’re quite proud of what we’ve been able to do a little less than a year in,” Skipper said. “It’s been a learning experience. I didn’t have a good sense of how hard this is to do, to get fighters to commit and get a schedule this far ahead of time. I wasn’t smart enough to know what I didn’t know. But I think Canelo-Kovalev puts in the last piece of what we humbling submit is the greatest schedule of boxing ever created.”
If not the greatest, it certainly is one of the busiest.
ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlfnp7j3Jmamtflrm3rdGesWajn6uurbHVZqqmmZyherGt0a1kqJ5dma67utJmmaiwmaO0br%2FEmqqopl8%3D