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UK fans face four Pay Per View fees before Xmas during pandemic

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  • 3 min read

United Kingdom boxing fans are staring at the possibility of forking out four times before Christmas for Pay Per View boxing events during the pandemic.

Between Sky Sports and BT Sport, there is a quartet of events lined up that could see British punters charged up to £90.

If all four are confirmed, three of which already are, it will hit pockets hard as coronavirus ravages the planet.

As advertised this week, Sky has three shows penciled in with extra charges on top of their already costly subscription.

Oleksandr Usyk vs. Derek Chisora kicks things off on Halloween. The heavyweight showdown is priced at £19.95.

Three weeks later and the rematch between Alexander Povetkin and Dillian Whyte is also scheduled to bring the same charges.

A further three weeks down the line and Anthony Joshua battles Kubrat Pulev on December 12th. AJ’s match-ups are now secured at an eye-popping £24.95 across the board.

Add Tyson Fury’s December homecoming into the mix, the one solitary offering from BT, and it’s a hefty sum for boxing bereft of any fans or atmosphere.

US PAY PER VIEW

Top Rank boss Bob Arum, who put on a sensational event last weekend inside the MGM Grand Bubble for free, has been critical of Sky’s pandemic policy.

Teofimo Lopez
Mikey Williams

Obviously, they need to make money back on the fact that supporters cannot pack arenas, but Arum firmly believes other ways of doing things are out there.

Teofimo Lopez’s amazing victory over Vasyl Lomachenko has been the highlight of the year so far. Arum’s company didn’t charge a penny for the privilege.

In contrast, Showtime pushes Gervonta Davis hard on PPV for the same night as Usyk vs. Chisora. It comes on the back of asking fans to pay $70 for the Charlo Double-Header.

Charlo vs Derevyanchenko, the main headliner of the two bouts, has an initial total of just 100,000 sales. Very poor considering the current climate of people sitting at home more.

As for Sky, their numbers have been worryingly decreasing, as WBN has addressed a few occasions of late. Only Joshua has gone over one million buys since 2018.

Now show beyond the two-time world champion has gone over 250,000 purchases since the summer of 2019 – a sharp downturn.

Fans will vote with their wallets, of course, and World Boxing News will be keeping a close eye on the totals in the coming months.

The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.

WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.