Watch: Eddie Hearn criticizes the possibility of Gennadiy Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez being a PPV in 2017
A clip of Eddie Hearn criticizing Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennadiy Golovkin being a PPV in the United Kingdom has been unearthed by fans. Hearn is the promoter of Canelo-Golovkin III which will be a DAZN PPV around the world, including the UK.
Hearn said:
“Golovkin against Canelo does not do as many buys as people think it does as a standalone at 4 in the morning. The view of the person watching this may be a little distorted because they can't see, I've seen the numbers from Ward Kovalev, and you didn’t have to pay for, you know what I mean? So if that’s the audience for that on Sky, if that was on a subscription channel, i.e a boxing subscription channel f***ing hell. So how many buys does Canelo – Golovkin do? In my opinion, between 100-150,000 buys at 4:30 in the morning.”
Watch the interview here:
In 2017, around the time of the first fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, Hearn had no connection with either fighter. Both Sky Sports, which Hearn was associated with, and BoxNation, founded by Frank Warren, were interested in landing the fight.
In the end, it landed on BoxNation PPV, which Hearn criticized. BoxNation is a television channel that exclusively shows boxing fights. At the time, Hearn believed a separate subscription channel could not do too many PPV buys.
Eddie Hearn was critical of the £16.95 price tag for Canelo Alvarez vs Gennadiy Golovkin 1
Hearn was also critical of the price BoxNation was charging:
“You’ve got to get someone up to pay £16.95 to watch that fight between a guy Canelo, who I'm going to get stick for this but if you want the truth... Canelo is not a big name in the UK, and trust me Golovkin is through the Brook fight. This is an unbelievable fight, a great fight but not a huge fight in the UK.”
In the United Kingdom, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennadiy Golovkin III will be priced at £17.98 for new subscribers. The bout will be shown on DAZN, a boxing subscription platform. Existing subscribers will have to pay £9.99 for the PPV on top of their £7.99 subscription fee in the UK.
As the fight will take place at Las Vegas, it is likely that the main event will once again be after 4am UK time.
The boxing landscape in the United Kingdom has, however, changed since Hearn made those statements. Hearn has linked up with DAZN, a subscription-based sports streaming platform. BoxNation still exists, but does not show as many fights as it once did, and Queensberry Promotions fights now typically take place on BT Sports.
Canelo Alvarez has since become an undisputed champion at super middleweight, and defeated two British boxers along the way. Both Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders faced defeat to Canelo.
Regardless of the hype, Golovkin vs. Canelo III will take place at an unfavorable time in the UK, so how successful it is there remains to be seen.
Watch Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders:
With the fight also being the first US-based DAZN PPV in the UK, it is likely that if it is a success further US fights will be on PPV on DAZN in the UK.