Deontay Wilder vs. Dominic Breazeale WON’T take place on DAZN

By Boxing News - 03/14/2019 - Comments

Image: Deontay Wilder vs. Dominic Breazeale WON'T take place on DAZN

By Allan Fox: Deontay Wilder’s next title defense of his WBC heavyweight belt against Dominic Breazeale won’t be taking place on DAZN as previously thought, according to Chris Mannix. Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel has confirmed. Wilder 40-0-1, 39 KOs) is expected to reject DAZN’s 3-fight, $100 million offer.

We don’t know precisely why Wilder, 33, rejected the 3-fight, $100 million offer from DAZN, It’s possible that he might feel that the offer, which entails one fight against Breazeale and two fights against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, isn’t for the type of money that that Joshua-Wilder fights could bring in. If Wilder can make more money from his two fights with Joshua than the reported $40 million per fight offer from DAZN, then it would make sense for Wilder to reject the offer.

Before the facts are all in, you can’t assume that Wilder is rejecting the $100 million offer from DAZN out of fear of fighting Joshua. There’s got to be a logical explantion for Wilder not agreeing to the offer from DAZN. Perhaps he and his co-managers Al Haymon and Shelly Finkel are looking for DAZN to sweeten the deal a little before they give Deontay the green light to sign on the dotted line. Again, it comes to the value of the two fights on three-fight deal against Joshua. If Wilder can make more than the $80 million those two fights would make through a contract with DAZN, then it makes sense for Wilder to say no to the deal. Some boxing fans believe that the Wilder vs. Joshua fights will make at least $100 million. If that turns out to be the case, Wilder might make more money by getting a better deal.

“Deontay Wilder will formally announce his network decision on Tuesday, but expectation is that he will reject @DAZN_USA’s offer, sources tell @SInow,” said Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. “DAZN has aggressively pursued Wilder in the last week, offering him a multi-fight deal that would well exceed $100 million.”

Unless anything changes, Wilder vs. Breazeale will be shown on Showtime pay-per-view on May 18. If they showed on Fox PPV, that would make it interesting as well. With a big marketing push, Wilder-Breazeale could bring in a lot of pay-per-view buys. Breazeale isn’t a big name, but it doesn’t matter. If the promoted right, it can do well with the U.S boxing public.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing won’t be happy to hear the news of Wilder rejecting the offer from DAZN. Hearn was hoping that DAZN would sign Wilder, and then it would lead to a big money unification fight between him and Joshua in November or December. That fight can still happen. It’s just going to need to be negotiated.