By Charles Brun: British boxing fans are already angry about the rumored costs of £50 for the first Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fight in 2021. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn maintains that the value of the Joshua-Fury battle will be no higher than £29.95 in the U.K., which comes out to $37 in American dollars.
U.K. fans see £50 as way too much to pay to see Joshua and Fury battle it out, and many of them are saying on social they won’t pay. Even at £29.95, British fans are saying that’s too much. Joshua angered a lot of people with some of his comments at a rally, and that could hurt sales.
The Joshua-Fury fight is still likely to bring in massive numbers on pay-per-view and in ticket sales, but perhaps not as much as it could have been had Joshua not upset people.
The British fans have it a lot better than the U.S. fans, who pay $70 to $100 for pay-per-view for fight cards that are often filled with one-sided mismatches from top to bottom.
Hearn is already talking about pay-per-view for Joshua-Fury even though both guys have matches; they still need to win later this year.
Hearn laughs off rumors of £50 for PPV
“You think that I’m going to double [it], oh and by the way, I don’t even set the pay-per-view prices,” said Hearn to IFL TV on the pay-per-view prices for Joshua vs. Fury.
“Do I think that’ll go over £29.95? no, I don’t. But again, this isn’t my decision. I don’t think Sky are looking at this fight thinking, ‘Oh yeah, that’ll give us an excuse to put the price up,” said Hearn.
There could be a problem if Hearn hikes the prices for the Joshua vs. Fury bout too high. Hearn says the fight is the most significant heavyweight clash in British boxing history, but what he’s not saying is it’s a wrong time to ask fans to pay a lot of money.
With many boxing fans unemployed or partially unemployed, it’s not a good time for Hearn to start raising the prices for pay-per-view.
If Matchroom solid Joshua’s fight with Fury at the standard price for PPV, they would make more money than if they raised the costs through the roof. When promoters take advantage of the situation by raising rates for a big fight, they’re seeing as GAUGING the public.
When fans feel like they’re being ripped off and taken advantage of by the promoters and networks, they stay away in droves. For some, they stop purchasing pay-per-view events permanently in reaction to the price gauging.
The high-priced under-performing Floyd Mayweather Jr fights in the States turned off a lot of American boxing fans to purchasing pay-per-view events. Mayweather’s fights against Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor both sold for $100 per household, and both were dull affairs with little action.
Mayweather fought in a safety-first manner and did the bare minimum to win. Additionally, the undercards for both of those events were filled with poor mismatches and mostly prospects.
Pay-per-view costs for Joshua-Fury must represent the value
“So I’m not here to come in like a cowboy and go £49.99, see you later, cheers, bye, with a sack of money,” said Hearn on the Joshua-Fury match.
“It’s got to be right, it’s got to represent the value of the product like everything has,” said Fury.
The Joshua looked in his last two fights against Andy Ruiz Jr, the pay-per-view prices for his fight with Joshua shouldn’t be increased.
It’s disappointing to fans to see promoters raising the prices on pay-per-view for the bigger fights it leaves people feeling like they’ve been taken advantage of. If there a reverse situation where management would drop the prices when lesser battles were put on, then it wouldn’t be so bad.
There’s a lot of horrid pay-per-view cards with headliner fights that have no business being sold on pay-per-view. If the promoters dropped the prices those weak cards to say £10 [$12], it would balance out for when prices are raised sharply.
Hearn says Fury might want it £50
“Maybe Tyson Fury wants it to be £49.99, I don’t think it should be anywhere near that kind of money, and I don’t believe Sky would either,” said Hearn.
That’s funny that Hearn is predicting that Fury will want the prices hiked to £49.99, but he may be right. Fury is talking about wanting to get a massive new contract after his current one expires with ESPN and Top Rank, and he may be looking to make all he can from his fights.
If Fury does convince the organizers to raise the prices to £49.99, he’s going to lose a lot of money from fans that will resist paying that. Joshua vs. Fury will still do well given the interest from boxing fans in the U.K. and the U.S., but they’ll still lose a lot of money by hiking the prices.
That’s why it might be better in the long run if they keep the prices at the normal levels rather than anger the boxing public, causing them to turn their backs on pay-per-view forever.
