Ngannou’s previous fight in Riyadh failed
On March 8, Riyadh will host duel between former world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua and former UFC champion Francis Ngannou. A bright promo, a serious undercard, guest stars and even a created computer game – the organizers of the boxing event do everything so as not to repeat the sad result of the fight between Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury. Let’s figure it out.
The Fury-Ngannou fight was also presented as a big event in the world of martial arts (based on the nature of the fight, it became one), but it turned out to be a failure financially. Of course, no one set the goal of making money from the fight, and for Saudi Arabia, whose General Directorate of Entertainment Affairs is the organizer of all sporting and cultural events in the country, a hundred million dollars is not a lot of money, but failure in terms of interest is a clear failure.
It is noteworthy that until now, and the Fury-Ngannou fight took place in October last year, there is no official data on the number of paid broadcasts sold. There is only a message from insiders that about 70,000 thousand people bought the fight between the Briton and Cameroonian in the USA. Yes, perhaps they managed to gather some audience in the UK and the rest of the world, but it seems that these are clearly not the numbers that the organizers wanted to see.
For example, the Davis-Garcia fight received 1.2 million PPV, the Crawford-Spence fight received 700 thousand. Even Tommy Fury in a fight with blogger Jake Paul received 800 thousand paid broadcasts, and the latter’s fight with Nate Diaz collected 450 thousand PPV.
There are several reasons for the failure. First of all, the high price (about $80). The second – not the best time – the fight was broadcast at noon on Saturday for most states. Thirdly, a frankly unsuccessful card for an event of this magnitude. Fourthly, and this is also worth admitting, Fury and Ngannou are not the most popular in the United States. It seems that all these factors have been taken into account this time.
If point by point. The event itself will take place on Friday local time. The cost of the broadcast has been reduced to a reasonable $25. On the undercard of the Joshua-Ngannou fight there will be several interesting fights, including a championship fight, albeit for a temporary title, as well as a fight between Tyson Fury’s younger brother, Roman. And Ngannou himself, with his performance against the Gypsy King, added interest to his person and the fight with Joshua.
Well, according to tradition, considerable funds and “star artillery” were used to promote the battle. Another epic promotional video for the fight, the presence of celebrities led by Cristiano Ronaldo at events before the fight, and even the creation of a simple, but addictive computer gamededicated to the fight. Let’s see how well all these moves work this time. Of course, it’s unlikely that anything will interfere with the Fury-Usyk fight already announced for May, but if the Joshua-Ngannou fight fails, there is a risk that Saudi Arabia will seriously adjust its investments and claims in the future.
Source: Sportarena
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
