The days of DAZN claiming pay-per-view is dead have truly died, as the company has picked up Floyd Mayweather’s Nov. 13 exhibition bout with social media star Deji for their PPV platform.
Mayweather, 45, hasn’t had a sanctioned bout since 2017 when he beat Conor McGregor, but has become a standout on the exhibition circuit. He also hasn’t had any fight carried by what you might consider a name brand platform other than Showtime since 2012, when his bout with Miguel Cotto was the last one he ever did under the HBO banner.
This doesn’t necessarily mean Mayweather himself is working directly with DAZN, mind you, but perhaps that Global Titans — the company behind this bout, which will take place in Dubai — made a deal with DAZN to carry the fight as a PPV.
Other than Mayweather’s exhibition with Logan Paul, which was a Showtime PPV in 2021, his other recent showcase “fights” have been available through direct streams from whatever company was putting up the money, and also often through FITE TV and iNDemand.
DAZN, it has to be admitted, are now also changing their tune on “only the biggest and best fights will be on pay-per-view,” as this is a pure cash grab attempt. This exhibition has no actual significance.
But boxing being a business first, a series of political machinations second, and then a sport third, DAZN may be on to something here, and also probably wouldn’t do this if if Deji’s brother, KSI, hadn’t given them numbers they liked for his last gimmick event, where he had two fights on DAZN PPV in one show on Aug. 27.
This also likely won’t be a $50 or $70 pay-per-view, but it will probably be more than the $10 the KSI show cost. For U.S. fans, this will air on a Sunday afternoon head-to-head with NFL football, so there’s a lot going against this, but it’s also likely, it seems, that DAZN aren’t putting much of their own money into this, either, and it could be something that works out well for everyone, with nobody forced to buy it.
Mayweather’s most recent exhibition came in late September, when he went to Japan and knocked out MMA veteran Mikuru Asakura inside of two rounds, in what you might call a “green light” exhibition, where nothing counted on anyone’s record, but it also wasn’t anything like Mayweather’s other exhibition earlier this year, a lengthy light sparring bout with friend Don Moore.