The undercard for the light heavyweight undisputed championship fight between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev on June 1st in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is expected to feature mouth-watering fights for the undercard, with the ‘Five Vs. Five’ undercard. There are some hits but a whole bunch of misses.
The Keepers (If You Can Call Them That)
Wilder-Zhang and Hrgovic-Dubois are the two keepers of the bunch for U.S. boxing fans. The rest of the fights are throwaways, more for the UK fans who follow these fighters.
Aside from those two appealing fights, the undercard is a mixed bag of mildly interesting matches, but nothing stands out that will make Americans want to purchase this event on PPV.
The headliner between Bivol and Beterbiev isn’t a pay-per-view fight, which is why this even lives & dies on the Wilder vs. Zhang clash to interest American fans. They’re not going to purchase the event in high numbers on PPV just to see little-known Raymond Ford fight the little wrestler Nick Ball or Filip Hrgovic fight Daniel Dubois.
Nothing has been confirmed yet, but it’s believed the card will have a worthy undercard to entice boxing fans to purchase it on PPV.
Hopefully, the Saudis don’t schedule the event at a time that won’t work for American fans because it’ll do poorly on pay-per-view if piped in an off hour.
The Rumored Lineup
- Deontay Wilder vs. Zhilei Zhang
- Filip Hrgovic vs. Daniel Dubois
- Raymond Ford vs. Nick Ball
- Hamzah Sheeraz vs. Ammo Williams
- Callum Smith vs Anthony Yarde
- Johnny Fisher vs Sol Dacres
The American fans won’t know who even half of those fighters are and won’t be amped up to watch them in action. Callum Smith got knocked out, and it wasn’t long ago that Yarde was also stopped. Why on earth are they on a PPV card? Right off the bat, you could eliminate them, and it would improve the card.
It’s fair to say that the Saudis would do better numbers if they eliminated the last four of those fights and reduced the PPV price. No one would grumble if the undercard were Wilder-Zhang and Hrgovic-Dubois if it saved fans money for the pay-per-view price.
Americans don’t keep up with Sheeraz, Callum, Yarde, Fishter of Ball. Those guys won’t register with the average casual boxing fans in the U.S.