So I know I sort of touched on this in another thread, but wanted to put it all in one. Late May as we all know he was part of the big DAZN reveal and there was a lot of talk of how he was going to take over the US market since he had a war chest of money with about $125 million per year. Immediately he targeted all the big Haymon guys and felt he could pry them away just as he was able to do so with Jacobs and Khan. Hearn said his phone had been blowing up like crazy since the announcement and he was going to reveal some big signings by the end of June.
Well, fast forward a month and it hasn't gone like he thought it would. Why? Because he tried to just snatch fighters away from Haymon and that was never going to work. A guy like Mikey Garcia is a straight businessman with no loyalty, so he may eventually make the move, but guys like Broner, Charlo bros, Spence, Wilder, etc aren't going anywhere. Haymon helps them outside the ring just as much inside it. Spence always talks about how Haymon from day one talked about investing his money and how to thrive after boxing. He has these guys make their own promotional companies to write off the expenses while being able to make some money off the gate as well as selling their own merchandise. Hearn nor any other promoter is letting that happen. I guess Joshua does have his own promotional company? So he may be one of the few that this applies to in the UK.
What he should have done is work with Haymon and have him put some of his guys on DAZN until it became a solid household streaming service in the states and then hope he could sign fighters two years down the line. ESPN+ which is WELL more known and has rights to other American sports that DAZN does not has like 200,000 subscribers. And it is promoted like crazy over ESPN and reasonably priced at $5 dollars per month. DAZN on the other hand is going to be doubled or tripled that price featuring bunch of niche sports. NFL and NBA digital rights are locked up until I believe 2020 and 2021. I heard they may get the English Premiere League rights, but that is not going to cut it. Futbol or soccer in the states isn't as big as the NBA or NFL or the MLB. So fighters for the near future are going to be fighting in front of a limited audience.
Hearn said his goal was for the American audience to stop paying $99.99 for PPVs and put those fights on DAZN. The problem with that statement is we don't pay that much, only for Mayweather/Pacquiao and Mayweather/McGregor. And the only fighter on PPV right now is Canelo with GGG being on it depending on the opponent. THAT'S IT! No one else is on PPV. All the other best fighters are fighting on HBO/SHO/ESPN. So from the start Hearn had a flawed plan. He said he wants about four PPV-esque shows per year. Well, are you going to get Canelo or GGG to fight on DAZN? If not, then it's not going to happen. But you could put on four great fights on DAZN....That is if you had guys like Wilder/Spence/Thurman/Garcia/etc. Heck, Thurman/Garcia and Thurman/Porter two really good match ups were on network television on CBS!
This takes me to what I have been saying for a while during the Wilder/Joshua negotiations. His plan was to never have Joshua/Wilder take place in 2018 because he simply couldn't put that type of fight on DAZN...YET. DAZN debuts in September and you can't put the biggest or second biggest fight in the world on a streaming service that has been running for only a month or two. He needed time to promote DAZN so it always made sense to make that fight in 2019. This would give DAZN six or seven months to get their name out and in meantime he could put Joshua on DAZN in September and hope it attracts some subscribers. The problem though? Joshua does good afternoon numbers on SHO, but nothing special. He's not a household name in the states yet to the point the American audience is dying to see him to the point they will pay 12-15 bucks to do so. This is why he was hoping to get some big name American fighters locked up to get some good press for DAZN. And what do you know, right after he told Wilder's team that the fight wasn't going to happen next, he offers Wilder $5 million to fight on DAZN. And Wilder swiftly turned it down knowing what Hearn was doing here. He wanted Wilder to take the fight on DAZN against Breazeale and then say look, your fight with Joshua will also take place on DAZN. Wilder wants some PPV money out of it and Espinoza even said the fight taking place in the UK doesn't necessarily mean it can't be on PPV in the states. It will be interesting to see what type of numbers it does, but if it does even like 300,000 buys, that's $21 million off PPV (10.5-11 after cable distributors get their share). DAZN isn't going to be putting up THAT type of money.
Hearn ended up screwing himself here big time IMO. Why? Because that $15 million flat fee that Wilder accepted for it to happen in 2018? No chance he agrees to that in April. Because now all the heat is on for that fight to happen next. It can't drag on any longer. Wilder gets a bit more negotiation pull that he didn't originally have. His team would be doing a big disservice to him if they don't take some sort of percentage upside or don't end up with at least $25 million this time around. And no chance it takes place on DAZN as Hearn wanted. Wilder's side will want it on SHO PPV where they could make additional 5-6 million on it.
In conclusion, Hearn was not able to sign the big name fighters he needed to start out his venture with a **** and now people will be disappointed when he reveals the signings in mid-July. Not only was the announcement delayed a few weeks, but there won't be any superstar names announced which he desperately needed to gain some traction in the US market with his platform. And he will have to give Wilder much more the second time around. It is super early for Hearn, but fair to say he will have to tweak his vision for his six year option to be picked up. Right now he should try to sign as many good solid fighters as he can and then work with big time promoters/advisors and put their cards on his network. Build the name brand first and then go for the jugular. Time will tell, but Fast Car has a big dilemma in the his new venture and I got my popcorn ready to see how it all unfolds! Good luck my good sir!
Well, fast forward a month and it hasn't gone like he thought it would. Why? Because he tried to just snatch fighters away from Haymon and that was never going to work. A guy like Mikey Garcia is a straight businessman with no loyalty, so he may eventually make the move, but guys like Broner, Charlo bros, Spence, Wilder, etc aren't going anywhere. Haymon helps them outside the ring just as much inside it. Spence always talks about how Haymon from day one talked about investing his money and how to thrive after boxing. He has these guys make their own promotional companies to write off the expenses while being able to make some money off the gate as well as selling their own merchandise. Hearn nor any other promoter is letting that happen. I guess Joshua does have his own promotional company? So he may be one of the few that this applies to in the UK.
What he should have done is work with Haymon and have him put some of his guys on DAZN until it became a solid household streaming service in the states and then hope he could sign fighters two years down the line. ESPN+ which is WELL more known and has rights to other American sports that DAZN does not has like 200,000 subscribers. And it is promoted like crazy over ESPN and reasonably priced at $5 dollars per month. DAZN on the other hand is going to be doubled or tripled that price featuring bunch of niche sports. NFL and NBA digital rights are locked up until I believe 2020 and 2021. I heard they may get the English Premiere League rights, but that is not going to cut it. Futbol or soccer in the states isn't as big as the NBA or NFL or the MLB. So fighters for the near future are going to be fighting in front of a limited audience.
Hearn said his goal was for the American audience to stop paying $99.99 for PPVs and put those fights on DAZN. The problem with that statement is we don't pay that much, only for Mayweather/Pacquiao and Mayweather/McGregor. And the only fighter on PPV right now is Canelo with GGG being on it depending on the opponent. THAT'S IT! No one else is on PPV. All the other best fighters are fighting on HBO/SHO/ESPN. So from the start Hearn had a flawed plan. He said he wants about four PPV-esque shows per year. Well, are you going to get Canelo or GGG to fight on DAZN? If not, then it's not going to happen. But you could put on four great fights on DAZN....That is if you had guys like Wilder/Spence/Thurman/Garcia/etc. Heck, Thurman/Garcia and Thurman/Porter two really good match ups were on network television on CBS!
This takes me to what I have been saying for a while during the Wilder/Joshua negotiations. His plan was to never have Joshua/Wilder take place in 2018 because he simply couldn't put that type of fight on DAZN...YET. DAZN debuts in September and you can't put the biggest or second biggest fight in the world on a streaming service that has been running for only a month or two. He needed time to promote DAZN so it always made sense to make that fight in 2019. This would give DAZN six or seven months to get their name out and in meantime he could put Joshua on DAZN in September and hope it attracts some subscribers. The problem though? Joshua does good afternoon numbers on SHO, but nothing special. He's not a household name in the states yet to the point the American audience is dying to see him to the point they will pay 12-15 bucks to do so. This is why he was hoping to get some big name American fighters locked up to get some good press for DAZN. And what do you know, right after he told Wilder's team that the fight wasn't going to happen next, he offers Wilder $5 million to fight on DAZN. And Wilder swiftly turned it down knowing what Hearn was doing here. He wanted Wilder to take the fight on DAZN against Breazeale and then say look, your fight with Joshua will also take place on DAZN. Wilder wants some PPV money out of it and Espinoza even said the fight taking place in the UK doesn't necessarily mean it can't be on PPV in the states. It will be interesting to see what type of numbers it does, but if it does even like 300,000 buys, that's $21 million off PPV (10.5-11 after cable distributors get their share). DAZN isn't going to be putting up THAT type of money.
Hearn ended up screwing himself here big time IMO. Why? Because that $15 million flat fee that Wilder accepted for it to happen in 2018? No chance he agrees to that in April. Because now all the heat is on for that fight to happen next. It can't drag on any longer. Wilder gets a bit more negotiation pull that he didn't originally have. His team would be doing a big disservice to him if they don't take some sort of percentage upside or don't end up with at least $25 million this time around. And no chance it takes place on DAZN as Hearn wanted. Wilder's side will want it on SHO PPV where they could make additional 5-6 million on it.
In conclusion, Hearn was not able to sign the big name fighters he needed to start out his venture with a **** and now people will be disappointed when he reveals the signings in mid-July. Not only was the announcement delayed a few weeks, but there won't be any superstar names announced which he desperately needed to gain some traction in the US market with his platform. And he will have to give Wilder much more the second time around. It is super early for Hearn, but fair to say he will have to tweak his vision for his six year option to be picked up. Right now he should try to sign as many good solid fighters as he can and then work with big time promoters/advisors and put their cards on his network. Build the name brand first and then go for the jugular. Time will tell, but Fast Car has a big dilemma in the his new venture and I got my popcorn ready to see how it all unfolds! Good luck my good sir!
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