By Matt Lieberman: Showtime is charging $74.95 for the September 26 PPV doubleheader headlined by the Charlo twins taking on Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Jeison Rosario in this six-fight card.
Premier Boxing Champions present the card at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.
It’s too bad there isn’t a pandemic discount to cut the price between $30 and $40. Charging $75 is a steep amount considering what the world is going through right now.
Fans are interested in seeing the two main events involving WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) defending against Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs) and WBC 154-lb champion Jermell Charlo (33-1, 17 KOs) taking on IBF/WBA champion Rosario (20-1-1, 14 KOs).
Can fans afford $74.95?
Where boxing fans might have a problem is the cost of the doubleheader. That’s a steep price to charge during the pandemic with a lot of out of work, unable to pay their mortgages, rent, and buy food.
There’s a time for everything, obviously, and this arguably isn’t the ideal time to charge fans $74.99 for a card. Would this type of thing fly during ‘The Great Depression’ in the United States from 1929 to 1933?
One can’t imagine a highly expensive boxing match being staged during the economic depression back then, which is why it seems out of place for one to be taking place now.
The haves will be able to afford the Charlo wins doubleheader, whereas the have nots won’t be able to see it unless they choose to watch it via illegal streams on September 26.
As long as the organizers for the September 26 card on Showtime realize that the pay-per-view numbers could be dismal to the extreme, then that’s fine. For a lot of boxing fans they’ll watch the fights later in the evening on Youtube for free.
For the $74.95, these are the fights that you’ll get to see:
- Jermell Charlo vs. Jeison Rosario
- Daniel Roman vs. Juan Carlos Payano
- Luis Nery vs. Aaron Alameda
- John Riel Casimero vs. Duke Micah
- Jermall Charlo vs. Sergiy Derevyanchenko
- Brandon Figueroa vs. Damien Vazquez
The Charlo brothers in the best fights
The two main event fights involving the Charlo twins are interesting, and hopefully, there are no controversial outcomes. WBC 160-lb champion Jermall, 30, is being tested for the first time since moving up to middleweight in defending against two-time world title challenger Derevyanchenko.
The judges must score the fight logically, as Charlo’s win over Matt Korobov in 2018 was highly controversial Korobov got the better of Charlo in the war. Still, the judges gave it to the A-side fighter Jermall.
If we see something similar on September 26, it’s going to anger the boxing fans that are paying $74.95 to watch the card. It’s not that the fans want to see Jermall lose.
They don’t want to see a bunch of controversial fights with their money, especially if the guy that wins is the A-side fighter Charlo. If there’s going to be a controversial decision involved, it’ll go over better if the challenger is the one that is given the win rather than the champion Jermall.
Derevyanchenko has already gotten a raw deal in the past in his questionable defeats to Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs. In both of those fights, Derevyanchenko was the B-side, so it wasn’t that peculiar for him to lose to the more popular A-side fighters.
Derevyanchenko’s last fight was against GGG last October, and he suffered a nasty cut in that match. We’ll have to see if the scar tissue over Derevyanchenko’s right eye will hold together for the full 12 rounds against Jermall.
Iron Man Jermell with a tough task
Jermell may have the most challenging test between the Charlo brothers, as he’s taking on the hard-hitting IBF/WBA 154lb champion Rosario, who is coming off of a knockout win over Julian Williams.
Charlo has already lost once in his career in a defeat against Tony Harrison in 2018. Rosario is the type of fighter who will take the judges out of the equation by potentially knocking out Jermell.
Once you get past the two Charlo brothers fights on the September 26th Showtime pay-per-view card, there’s not a lot of great action to see.