Arum on PBC-Amazon Deal: If Haymon Disproportionally Does PPVs, That's A Disaster For The Sport

Al Haymon introduced a powerful new player in boxing when Premier Boxing Champions announced a multiyear deal with Amazon in December. 

PBC’s deal to stream its shows on Amazon Prime arrived on the heels of Showtime’s exit from the sport. The first PBC on Amazon show, a PPV card headlined by a fight featuring Tim Tszyu vs. Keith Thurman, has already been announced for March 30.

The press release detailing the terms of the deal last month outlined that Prime Video would exclusively stream a PBC Championship Boxing series of events in the United States and select countries. Prime Video is also set to distribute PBC’s pay-per-view events in the U.S. The PPVs would be available for viewers to purchase, regardless if they had a Prime membership.

Amazon is not new to boxing. In 2021, Top Rank and Teiken Promotions a multi-fight agreement with Prime Video in Japan. 

In an interview with krikya360.com, Hall of Fame promoter and Top Rank boss Bob Arum reacted to the PBC-Amazon deal.

“First of all, the Amazon Prime people are first-rate,” said Arum. “We've had experience dealing with them in various fights in Japan. We just renewed our Japanese deal with Amazon Prime. They're a great organization, and hopefully, they'll be able to replicate what they have done in Japan in the United States. The only thing I would hope is that they don't overload it with pay per view and that they do more free fights on the platform because if Al disproportionately uses them to do PPV, that's a disaster for the sport. I've always believed that the PPV fights should be few and far between and that most of the fights, or as many as possible, should be free to the consumer ... If boxing is going to take all of its fights and put it on PPV, it's going to be the death knell for the sport of boxing.”

The very best of the fights PBC, Top Rank, Matchroom, Golden Boy, et al, can offer are increasingly being staged on PPV.

Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, has been growing his presence in the sport in recent months to present big time fights that likely would never have happened if his country didn’t fund it. 

Alalshikh’s efforts have opened the cross-promotional floodgates, albeit with the fights still being staged on PPV. In a recent interview, Alalshikh also called for a growing working relationship with Haymon.

The 92-year-old Arum said Alalshikh’s checkbook can bring any fight to the forefront but he'd prefer to offer attractive cards to fans without a paywall. But Arum also realizes "you can't have everything, at least it enables the fights to happen." 

Over the last decade Arum and Haymon have rarely worked together and only for special fights like Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao and Tyson Fury vs.  Deontay Wilder. 

Arum said he’s ready to play ball with Haymon to arrange for PBC’s Gervonta Davis to face either Top Rank’s Shakur Stevenson, Vasiliy Lomachenko, or Teofimo Lopez Jr. 

“If a promotion company is not willing to deal with another promotion company, they are insane,” said Arum. 

“It's not to keep everything for yourself. But to reach the best possible audience and to do the best fights for yourself and the sport. We have no problem dealing with [other promoters]. We should do more. Boxing should look to have the ability to present the best fights available to the public without regard to which fighter the promoter controls. If we don't do that, we're just going to kill the sport. But I am optimistic that as we look ahead to the years to come, we'll do more and more co-promotions to offer the best possible fights.” 

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.