Fans on social media are complaining about the DAZN PPV price for the Dmitry Bivol + ‘5 vs 5’ double-header on June 1st. The event price is $69.99 in the U.S on DAZN PPV.
In hindsight, it was a bad idea for Malik Zinad to be used as Bivol’s replacement opponent to fight on a PPV card. The event organizers might have thought Zinad was known to the average fan/
Beterbiev Bows Out, Bivol Gets a Zinad as Replacement
Originally, Bivol was supposed to fight unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev as the headliner, a fight that many people were excited about.
Beterbiev is now off the card after suffering a ruptured meniscus, and he’s been replaced as Bivol’s opponent by the obscure fringe contender Malik Zinad.
They should have found someone else to fight Bivol, a fighter that U.S fans have heard of, given the PPV price. David Benavidez would have been a good option.
Boxing fans on X are saying they’re not interested in seeing Bivol fight this guy, who has a resume filled with unknowns. They’re saying that Bivol-Zinad isn’t worth seeing on DAZN PPV, and they’ll veto ordering the event.
Obviously, it might have been better to leave Bivol off the card entirely if a good substitute couldn’t be found a better opponent. It’s unclear who picked Zinad, but he’s not even known to hardcore boxing fans.
There are good fights on the undercard, but U.S fans were looking forward to seeing Bivol fighting Beterbiev. They weren’t thinking about wanting to see the undercard fights when they were initially amped about ordering the event.
Notable Fights on card
– Deontay Wilder vs. Zhilei Zhang
– Filip Hrgovic vs. Daniel Dubois
– Raymond Ford vs. Nick Ball
– Willy Hutchinson vs. Craig Richards
– Hamzah Sheeraz vs. Austin Williams
Boxing fans are not interested in purchasing the event to see the recently beaten Deontay Wilder fight Zhilei Zhang. Both guys lost their last fight and looked terrible.
The organizers of the June 1st event weren’t going to scrap the card after Beterbiev’s injury. Still, they should have found somebody better than Zinad as the replacement because the undercard isn’t good enough in the eyes of fans on social media to pay the asking price.
The fight between heavyweights Filip Hrgovic and Daniel Dubois is also lackluster. Dubois was knocked out in nine rounds in his last fight in August by Oleksandr Usyk, which takes a lot of the shine away from the match between him and Hrgovic.