Heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte recently fought on Showtime in the US in his last fight before Christmas against Dereck Chisora.
A rematch he won by knockout that was also shown on Sky Sports Box Office in the UK from the 02 Arena in London last December 22nd.
Whyte also recently and very publicly went to the US to meet with various players to explore potential new deals for himself as he revealed that he was only on a fight by fight contract with his current promoter Eddie Hearn and he was not also tied to any network to show his fights either.
Speaking on his recent trip to the US where he met with other promoters and TV networks and people reported such as Al Haymon of Premier Boxing Champions, Whyte told Johnny Nelson live on Sky Sports that:
“I said to (Eddie Hearn) am I a DAZN fighter? I asked him three times in a row — I said Eddie am I a DAZN fighter? He said no. I said are you sure?
He said no — you’re not fighting in America. I said are you sure? I said okay, so you’re giving all this DAZN money to everyone else but you’re not giving it to me but you’re putting DAZN on the fight posters that I’m fighting on so basically you’re hiding my potential to other people (networks).”
On the trip that then ensued to America recently, he added:
“No regrets (about the trip to the US) because when I was in America so many people watched my fight (against Chisora). I think 17,000 people watched Joshua and Povetkin on DAZN in America and look how big America is.”
Very concerning indeed if those numbers are accurate.
To be fair though, DAZN had just started as a platform at that time and Canelo fighting before Christmas would have surely boosted subscriptions as Canelo is a far bigger name in the US than Joshua is.
What the above does clearly show however is that Anthony Joshua is not big at all at all in the US just yet.
Far, far from it.
