By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn reports that he’s in the process of finalizing Canelo Alvarez’s fight against his Matchroom fighter John Ryder for May 6 on DAZN in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Hearn is counting on announcing the Canelo-Ryder fight by next week. For DAZN, this has to be seen as a pure disaster for them, as they’ve raised the price for their U.S. subscribers to $224.99 per year, and they need quality fights that will keep the existing base from canceling.
With DAZN paying Canelo tons of money, it won’t work if he’s fighting guys like John Ryder, Avni Yildirim, Billy Joe Saunders, and Rocky Fielding, who U.S. boxing fans can’t connect with.
If Canelo & Hearn wants to do DAZN a solid, they’d forget about the Ryder fight and focus on setting up a clash with someone that the U.S fans want to see that will keep the subscribers to the streaming giant from abandoning ship to sign the competition at ESPN+ and Showtime.
The top brass at DAZN should tell Hearn that they’re not interested in putting on Canelo-Ryder because it’s BAD timing for another gimme for Canelo.
DAZN needs Canelo to fight opposition that will make it worthwhile for fans to pay $224.99 per year because soft touches like Ryder, washed-up 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin, Billy Joe Saunders, and Avni Yildirim isn’t going to do it.
Additionally, the Misfits and YouTuber stuff isn’t what serious boxing fans subscribed to DAZN to see. They want to see quality fights, not influencers fighting and looking awful.
The U.S. subscribers to DAZN don’t want to subsidize the influencer boxing shows, especially when it involves paying a huge price hike in the subscription rate.
“Not yet,” said Eddie Hearn to The Metro when asked if the Canelo vs. Ryder negotiations are done. “Saul has announced his next fight will be on 6 May in Guadalajara; John Ryder is definitely the front-runner for that.
“We are still trying to finalize the contracts for that fight, and hopefully, you will get an announcement next week. Now we are just working on getting everything over the line.”
It obviously doesn’t bother Hearn that Canelo is fighting Ryder, because he’s one of his British fighters, and this will play somewhat well back in the UK.
Ryder isn’t a big name in British, but he’s recognizable to them. For the U.S, this is a dud and another example of Canelo cherry-picking opposition to keep his sinking career afloat for a little longer.
“Julio César ‘Rey’ Martínez, Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela, Héctor Escobar, Joselito Velázquez… some names that sound like for Canelo’s support in Jalisco on May 6 🇲🇽” said Salvardo Rodriguez of ESPN Knockout on Twitter about the Canelo Alvarez vs. John Ryder undercard.
