By Tim Royner: BT Sports has come out on top in winning a bidding war with Sky Sports to broadcast the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 2 rematch in the UK on February 22. According to the Daily Mail, Sky made a ‘a huge offer’ to try and win the bidding war for the rights to broadcast the Wilder-Fury rematch, but it wasn’t good enough.
PPV prices could increase from first Wilder-Fury fight
The cost for the first Wilder vs. Fury fight on BT Sport went for £19.99 in December 2018. The February 22 rematch may see a bump up in price by BT Sport. That fight was scored a 12 round draw, but a lot of boxing fans felt that Wilder should have been given credit for a knockout. He dropped Fury hard in the 12th, and he was out cold.
Sky bid £10m for the Wilder-Fury 2 fight, according to the Daily Mail. The fight will be shown on BT Sport on television and through streaming on smartphones and other devices.
There’s a tremendous amount of interest from British boxing fans in the Wilder vs. Fury rematch, and it’ll be interesting to see how many pay-per-view buys it generates this time around. The fight has gotten a lot bigger than the first time they fought each other over a year ago in December 2018.
That match was scored a 12 round draw, but Fury has done a lot to market himself in the U.S with WWE involvement, his two tune-up matches, as well making himself available for countless interviews.
BT Sport will televise the rematch on Box Office pay-per-view in the UK. The fight will also be shown in the United States on Fox Sports and ESPN pay-per-view on February 22. For the average American fan, many of them weren’t aware of the bidding war going on in the UK between BT Sport and Sky to broadcast the Wilder vs. Fury 2 rematch.
Wilder vs. Fury 2 may break UK PPV record held by Joshua-Ruiz 2
According to the dailymail, Wilder-Fury 2 has a chance of breaking the UK record of 1.6 million PPV buys that the Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. fight set on December 7 on Sky Box Office from Saudi Arabia.
Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) defeated IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Ruiz Jr (33-2 22 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision to avenge his knockout defeat from last June. However, the Joshua vs. Ruiz 2 rematch failed to live up to the huge expectations from the fans in terms of excitement and entertainment value.
In a big disappointment, Joshua chose to copy former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s fighting style by running and holding for 12 rounds. To put it another way, Joshua spoiled for 12 rounds in fighting in a survival oriented fight. Joshua didn’t take chances in the fight, and a lot of boxing fans were disappointed afterwards in the fight. They felt that Joshua had a huge advantage in his conditioning, and he should have been able to beat Ruiz in the trenches, especially with millions of fans watching.
Fury’s promoter Bob Arum predicting 2 million buys
Top Rank boss Bob Arum believes the Wilder-Fury 2 fight will ultimately top 2 million buys. However, the lack of news conferences in the U.S, and the emphasis on promoting the fight by advertising it during football games could result in the fight failing to break the 2 million barrier.
Arum likely has talked to a lot of the top brass from ESPN for him to forgo press conferences for the Wilder vs. Fury 2 rematch. As the saying goes, ‘the more the merrier.’ It certainly wouldn’t have hurt if Arum had choose to have a big promotional tours for the Wilder-Fury rematch, in addition to all the advertising that’ll be done during football games.
