Frank Warren, promoter for heavyweight contender Tyson Fury, has given high praise to WBC world champion Deontay Wilder for rejected a potential deal with DAZN.
Wilder rejected a multi-fight deal with streaming service DAZN, reportedly worth over $100 million.
On Tuesday, Wilder announced that he would face his mandatory challenger, Domonic Breazeale, in a Showtime televised main event from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The card takes place on May 18th.
The financial details of Wilder's contest with Breazeale have not been revealed, but the boxer is expected by most insiders to receive a solid eight figure payday.
Warren, with decades of experience on the promotional side, has lost his fair share of fighters to rivals who dangled high numbers on ** - which is why he respects Wilder's decision.
He believes the decision by Wilder will make the Fury rematch far more doable. Fury has an exclusive deal in the United States with Top Rank and ESPN. If Wilder would have bound himself to DAZN, ** a rematch with Fury would have been extremely complicated. Showtime and ESPN can come together for a co-PPV - but the same can't be done with DAZN, streaming subscription service with a "no-PPV" business model.
"When you talk about these offers a lot of them sound great but at the end of the day he’s a loyal fella, he’s stayed with his manager," Warren told IFL TV.
"He’s staying with PBC, he’s staying with Showtime and you’ve got to respect him for that. He obviously feels that’s the decision he wants to go in. The fact he hasn’t done a deal with DAZN hopefully keeps the door open for a fight with Tyson.
"That’s a big fight and everybody still wants to see that rematch. I certainly do. And we’ll see what happens. In the meantime, he’s got his mandatory, he’s got to fight Breazeale."
Warren is still confident the rematch between Wilder and Fury can happen before the end of 2019.
"You’ve got to keep pushing away at it, keep chipping away at it, and I do believe it will happen [by the end of the year]. Both of them want it to happen. Both fighters still want it to happen and I believe it will happen," Warren said.
2023-10-22 23:04:53
