A YouTube Boxing fight between two no-mark presenters, both of whom have nothing to do with the sport, has bombed in the UK despite ‘professional status.’
In what was clearly a push to drive subscriptions in the United States, British fans were asked to pay almost TEN POUNDS to watch two less than amateurs attempt to fight.
The pair were painfully poor and have now been exposed in the UK markets as only a mere 216,000 (BARB confirmed) purchased the bout. This is despite being HALF the price of a usual Pay-Per-View.
A market that is clearly drying up was expected to get a shot in the arm from the contest. This is certainly not the case.
In fact, the event did fewer buys than David Haye vs Audley Harrison.
Haye vs Harrison is notorious for being promoter Eddie Hearn’s first foray into the paying platform. Subsequently, the fight was the catalyst for PPV ending for almost two years in the UK.
The news comes on the back of Hearn previously confirming the YouTube fight doing better than Anthony Joshua’s loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in the US on DAZN.
YouTube Boxing bombs
“The first fight did 1.2m pay-per-view buys globally. This was much, much bigger this time around,” Hearn had told Sirius XM’s Fight Nation in the days after the awful contest, which was bereft of any boxing skill.
“It’s the biggest pay-per-view in the UK of the year so far. That includes the first Joshua-Ruiz Jr fight from America. This fight was cheaper, was half the price of that.
“I believe DAZN will announce some numbers this week. I understand it was the most-viewed fight on DAZN.
“It was a big subscription driver, as well. And it wasn’t just those two key territories. It was all those other little territories.
“When we look at the breakdown on Fite TV, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Europe, Africa – it was everywhere.
“You don’t realize the audience these guys have. They brought our sport to reach the new ground and reach new territories, new demographics, and new markets.”
Those words have now come back to haunt Hearn as the YouTube Boxing fight did less than half the buys of Joshua vs. Ruiz despite being 50 percent cheaper.
There ain’t gonna be no rematch, rematch.
Phil Jay is the Editor of World Boxing News.
