Let’s talk about DAZN’s quality control (or lack thereof)

No broadcast entity in boxing has access to more elite talent than DAZN. It has almost all of the major promoters and top fighters under the same umbrella. Theoretically, that should allow for fight cards every week on both sides of the pond; it should produce shows stacked with quality fights, and it should result in the best matchups happening on a regular basis.

So why is it that last month, I opened social media to see the undercard for Teofimo Lopez vs. “Rolly” Romero and went, “Meh. Mid. Who?” And by the way, that’s a pay-per-view card. It’s gonna cost you $75 to watch Lopez — who lost nearly every round to Shakur Stevenson in January — fight Romero, who is not even a consensus top-10 welterweight but is somehow a titleholder. That is, of course, unless you fork out for DAZN’s $500 annual subscription to watch the best and biggest fights in boxing … except for Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn because that’s not on DAZN. Oh, and Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua? That’s not gonna be on DAZN either. What exactly are we even paying for again?

Advertisement

Yes, I know DAZN can’t guarantee every big fight, but Joshua, Matchroom, Queensberry, Garcia and Golden Boy are all exclusively with DAZN. Yet we still can’t get either marquee matchup on the platform? I find it crazy how boxing fans have spent years complaining about the fragmentation of the sport and how fighters being with different promoters and networks have prevented the best matchups from being made. Now, almost all of the top promoters are with the same network. And we still don’t seem to be getting a great product, or a regular product, for that matter.

Top Rank announced its deal with DAZN five months ago. But it has promoted only two shows on the platform since then. When is its next show? We have no idea. It was supposed to be involved in Devin Haney vs. Keyshawn Davis in October, but that fight isn’t happening now. Two of its fighters are battling in a main event next month, and it’s on ProBoxTV. Giovani Santillan from California is one of those two. Raymond Muratalla, also with Top Rank and from California, fought on a Golden Boy show earlier this month. Albert Gonzalez and Samuel Contreras, two more Top Rank fighters from California, boxed on a Matchroom show last month. You see where I’m going with this? It’s hard to imagine they would be fighting on other promoters’ shows if DAZN had enough dates to accommodate Top Rank, and it would make sense to place them on a card in the same state. If DAZN didn’t have enough dates, why sign all these promoters?

The show Gonzalez and Contreras fought on was headlined by Diego Pacheco in a step-back against Immanuwel Aleem. OK, Pacheco didn’t look good against Kevin Lele Sadjo in December; he was changing trainers and in the first fight of a new promotional deal, so that’s understandable. But maybe it shouldn’t have been a headliner. The co-feature on that card? Andy Cruz in a comeback fight after a loss. Those should not be the top two fights on a DAZN card — especially when it was the only U.S. card exclusively on DAZN in the month.

Advertisement

DAZN has all these promoters, and that’s the only U.S. show we’re getting for our subscription? There was only one UK card on the platform that month as well. Yes, I know the World Cup is a big deal on both sides of the pond, but I still expect more bang for my buck. I’m sure the promoters it has under its banner would like more dates too.

To fund these promoters, fans are expected to pay for a subscription service that puts its best fights on additional paywalls — or not on the platform at all. DAZN Ultimate — a very expensive membership that hardly anybody seems to have — is necessary to watch every big fight on the platform. If you don’t have that subscription, all big matchups become pay-per-views. Moses Itauma in his first world-level step-up? That’s a pay-per-view. Joshua in a tune-up against someone I’ve never even heard of? That would’ve cost you another $60.

And let’s say you do have DAZN Ultimate. Ultimate is supposed to provide fight fans with 12 pay-per-view shows per year. But the meaning of “pay-per-view” has become skewed with this subscription model. Fights that should be on a normal subscription or if they were on pay-per-view would have a small buy rate are being used to justify the value of the subscription. We are certainly not getting 12 genuine PPV-quality events per year — maybe three or four at best. If you’re a U.S. fight fan, only David Benavidez vs. Anthony Yarde, Stevenson vs. Lopez, Garcia vs. Romero, and Benavidez vs. Gilberto Ramirez have been genuine PPV-worthy since the scheme — sorry, model — started last October. The half-dozen UK PPVs in the afternoon? No, they shouldn’t have been PPV to begin with — and wouldn’t have been in past eras, which brings me to my next point.

DAZN appears to have very little awareness of this thing called time zones.

Advertisement

In past eras of boxing, the majority of U.S. PPVs, barring the very top ones, were available on a regular subscription model in the UK and vice-versa — that is to say U.S. fans were not expected to pay extra for pretty much any UK PPV. In the DAZN era, this is no longer the case. Fights like Boots Ennis vs. Xander Zayas and Lopez vs. Romero are PPVs for UK fans, while U.S. viewers are expected to pay extra for Fabio Wardley vs. Daniel Dubois (which, to be fair, was worth every penny), Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Benn and the like. It should be simple. If, as a Brit, I’m watching two Americans fight at 4 a.m., I shouldn’t be expected to pay extra unless it’s a genuine mega-fight — funnily enough, those seem to be ending up on Netflix or Paramount nowadays anyway. And I don’t expect my U.S. friends to have to pay for two Brits battling it out in the afternoon.

By making everything PPV, DAZN has tried to convince you that Ultimate is terrific value when it’s pretty much what we were supposed to get on DAZN in the first place — except for about five times the price.

Showtime PPVs stateside and Sky Sports ones in the prime Matchroom era — perhaps excluding Joshua stadium shows — may have cost you dearly for a single evening of entertainment, but you know what? They were worth every penny. We had a top-class main event and a compelling undercard to support it. You could sit down from 6 p.m. onward and know that you had a quality night of boxing in store. That is not the case with these DAZN PPVs. Because DAZN is relying on its Ultimate model, there isn’t as much emphasis on getting consumers to fork out for individual cards, and thus they consistently lack depth. The Lopez-Romero and Ennis-Zayas undercards are SHOBox-worthy cards — at best. And not even good SHOBox cards. Just average ones. Emiliano Vargas and Ben Whittaker are quality prospects, but their fights against overmatched opposition should not be the top two featured undercard fights on a PPV.

Advertisement

I’m telling you a lot about what isn’t good enough. Let me show you what should be setting the standard: Showtime’s final PPV, headlined by a compelling matchup between two unbeaten fighters in David Benavidez and Demetrius Andrade. The undercard? Jermall Charlo vs. Jose Benavidez, Subriel Matias vs. Shoshajon Ergashev and Hector Luis Garcia vs. Lamont Roach. Any one of those three fights — two of which were for world championships — could’ve headlined a non-PPV offering. And the prelims? Sergey Lipinets and Michel Rivera in a battle of fringe contenders, and a WBC title eliminator featuring Pablo Vicente vs. Muhammad Yaqubov. Those two prelim fights alone were better than the Lopez vs. Romero and Ennis vs. Zayas undercards. That was a quality night of fights. That was worth $75. That is what I should be getting from DAZN 12 times a year. DAZN has deals with Matchroom, PBC, Top Rank, Golden Boy, Queensberry and BOXXER, among others. And we still can’t get those kinds of cards?

There’s a fundamental lack of quality control at DAZN. No two ways about it. There’s no reason these promoters can’t combine to give us quality pay-per-view-level cards every month and compelling regular shows as well. At some point, somebody at DAZN has to see what a promoter puts to them and say, “That just isn’t cutting it. Either create a card that is good enough, or we’ll take that slot away from you, or better yet, we’ll replace some of your fights with ones worthy of being broadcast on our $500 subscription.”

To its credit, DAZN has done what it always set out to do. It is the home of boxing. It just isn’t very good boxing.