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Premier Boxing Champions’ next pay-per-view event distributed by FOX Sports will be nearly twice as expensive as its first offering of 2022.
BoxingScene.com has learned that it’ll cost consumers $74.95 to purchase PBC’s FOX Sports Pay-Per-View show February 5. Former WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith Thurman and ex-WBA super lightweight champ Mario Barrios are scheduled to square off in the 12-round main event of that show at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas.
PBC’s FOX Sports Pay-Per-View event January 1, headlined by Cuban heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz’s sixth-round technical knockout of American Charles Martin, was offered for $39.95.
Thurman is a bigger name commercially than Ortiz, yet fans had hoped the price point for that event would be indicative of a consistent drop in cost for FOX’s pay-per-view boxing events in 2022. The price of Thurman-Barrios instead is in line with most of PBC’s pay-per-view events distributed either by FOX Sports or Showtime.
The 33-year-old Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs, 1 NC) will end a 2½-year layoff when he battles Barrios (26-1, 17 KOs). The Clearwater, Florida, native hasn’t fought since Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao dropped him in the first round and edged Thurman by split decision in what developed into a very competitive 12-round fight for Thurman’s WBA “super” welterweight title in July 2019 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
San Antonio’s Barrios will attempt to bounce back from an 11th-round TKO loss to Gervonta Davis (26-0, 24 KOs). Baltimore’s Davis dropped Barrios three times on his way to winning that 12-round, 140-pound championship match June 26 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
The co-feature February 5 will mark the return of Leo Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19 KOs). The four-division champion from Rosemead, California, will face Phoenix’s Keenan Carbajal (23-2-1, 15 KOs) in a 12-round junior lightweight fight.
In another welterweight fight two weeks from Saturday, Abel Ramos (27-4-2, 21 KOs), of Casa Grande, Arizona, will square off against veteran Josesito Lopez (38-8, 21 KOs), of Riverside, California.
In the 122-pound opener of the telecast, undefeated Phoenix native Carlos Castro (27-0, 12 KOs) is set to face former WBC bantamweight and super bantamweight champion Luis Nery (31-1, 24 KOs). The southpaw from Tijuana will fight for the first time since his loss to Brandon Figueroa (22-1-1, 17 KOs), who knocked him out in the seventh round of their WBC 122-pound championship match May 15 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.