By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua is expected to announce his new multi-fight, multi-year deal with DAZN this week and will be leaving Sky Sports in favor of the streaming giant.
The new deal for the struggling 32-year-old former unified heavyweight champion Joshua is believed to be for hundreds of millions of dollars.
If DAZN has covered their bases, they’ll have an escape clause in the contract to allow them to exit the deal after a year if Joshua continues to lose.
Signing Joshua to a multi-year deal at this stage in his sagging nine-year career makes about as much sense as signing a famous running back with a bum knee.
Unless Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn will carefully match him against only beatable cannon fodder level opponents, as he had done earlier in his career, he’s likely to continue getting beat repeatedly.
This would be a multi-year, two-fight per year deal for Joshua, who at one time was considered the #1 heavyweight in the division. There’s still no official word on how many years Joshua’s new deal with DAZN is for, but it’s believed that it’s between three to five years.
Given how Joshua has performed in the last three years, DAZN could be signing the equivalent of a baseball pitcher with a dead arm. This could be a BIG blunder on DAZN’s part in giving a massive muti-year
DAZN signing Joshua will help bring in a ton of new subscribers in the UK, as long as he starts winning again and is consistent.
However, it’s fair to say that if Joshua continues to get beaten on a routine basis, DAZN could have a real albatross on their hands and will regret signing the fading star.
AJ’s rematch with IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) in August will be a critical one for DAZN, considering if Joshua loses, the streaming giant will be stuck with a past his former prime champion heading towards oblivion.
“Two-time heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua will confirm this week that he is cutting ties with Sky Sports after nine years as a pay-per-view star with the broadcaster and will switch allegiance to sports streaming service DAZN, the new and increasingly influential player in the digital era in the sports entertainment market,” said Gareth A Davies of the Telegraph about Anthony Joshua to sign a multi-fight deal with DAZN.
It should be interesting to see how this deal works out for DAZN in pouring money into a past his best Joshua. The timing of DAZN of signing Joshua makes little sense at this point, as he’s lost two out of his last four fights, and he looks washed up.
If Joshua loses to Usyk in their August rematch in August, what does DAZN do? Do they have any say so in the match-making being done for Joshua? If so, they should tell Hearn ONLY to match AJ against fighters that he’s sure that he can beat.
