On the heels of this past Saturday’s Anthony Joshua-Oleksandr Usyk heavyweight championship pay-per-view fight, the PPV boxing industry is gearing up for two more heavyweight fight cards heading into the fall.

Fox Sports will deliver the September 4 PPV bout between former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz and top contender Luis Ortiz, followed by an October 15 fight between former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and Robert Helenius.

Fox Sports Executive VP and head of programming Bill Wanger said that the two fight cards look to take advantage of increasing interest in the heavyweight division, which has featured several PPV events over the past four years. 

Since 2018, six PPV boxing events featuring either Wilder, Ortiz or Ruiz have drawn collectively more than 2 million PPV buys, according to industry sources. The fights are led by the second bout between Wilder and current heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, which drew more than 800,000 PPV buys, according to industry sources.

Wilder is stepping into the ring in October for the first time since losing his last two fights to Fury, with the hopes of eventually regaining the heavyweight championship belts. Ortiz and Ruiz are both looking to position themselves for another shot at the title by winning their September matchup.

All three fighters are chasing the current WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight champion Usyk – who on August 20 defeated former champion Joshua for the second straight time in the rematch of their September 2021 fight – as well as Fury, who holds the WBC title. Fury announced his retirement earlier this summer, but industry observers say a potentially lucrative unification fight against Usyk could lure him back into the ring. 

Outside of the heavyweight division, the PPV boxing category is counting down to the September 17 Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin trilogy fight. The first two Alvarez-Golovkin fights in 2017 and 2018 generated a combined 2.4 million PPV buys, according to industry sources. ■

Sports streaming service DAZN will look to expand its reach with a new weekly series launching on streaming service Pluto TV beginning Oct. 24.

The weekly, three-hour series, DAZN Fight Zone, will stream on Pluto TV’s Fight channel and will feature original content surrounding its upcoming marquee fights as well as archived classic fights. In addition, Pluto TV will program fight week events from open workouts to press conferences and fight weigh-ins, according to network officials.

Among the original shows set to air on DAZN Fight Zone is the special 40 Days: Canelo vs. Kovalev, executive produced by LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Carlos Vela, which will profile the Nov. 2 Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev light heavyweight fight.

DAZN executive vice president North America Joseph Markowski said that the deal allows DAZN to showcase its fight archive and original fight programming outside of the service’s monthly $19.99 pay wall, a strategy that he says has paid dividends for the service internationally.

“WE are an OTT service first and foremost, but we need to provide our content outside of our four walls to grow our brand and to drive sports fans back to our service,” he said. “We will be producing content especially for Pluto featuring our marquee fighters to the Pluto audience.”

The deal comes as DAZN prepares to offer several marquee fights over the next two months including the Oct. 26 Regis Prograis-Josh Taylor WBA super lightweight championship; the Nov. 2 Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev light heavyweight championship; the Nov. 7 Naoya Inoue-Nonito Donaire bantamweight championship; the Nov. 9 KSI-Logan Paul II boxing event; and the Dec. 7 Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua II heavyweight championship.

“We’re able to put DAZN content in front of the paywall, which allows us to grow our brand and drive people to our key upcoming events,” Markowski said. He added that DAZN will look to partner with other content distributors across a number of platforms in an effort to gain exposure for the brand.

“This fall, DAZN has the best possible schedule in boxing and we’ll be looking to send that message across as many channels as possible,” Markowski said. 

Sports streaming service DAZN will look to expand its reach with a new weekly series launching on streaming service Pluto TV beginning Oct. 24.

The weekly, three-hour series, DAZN Fight Zone, will stream on Pluto TV’s Fight channel and will feature original content surrounding its upcoming marquee fights as well as archived classic fights. In addition, Pluto TV will program fight week events from open workouts to press conferences and fight weigh-ins, according to network officials.

Among the original shows set to air on DAZN Fight Zone is the special 40 Days: Canelo vs. Kovalev, executive produced by LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Carlos Vela, which will profile the Nov. 2 Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev light heavyweight fight.

DAZN executive vice president North America Joseph Markowski said that the deal allows DAZN to showcase its fight archive and original fight programming outside of the service’s monthly $19.99 pay wall, a strategy that he says has paid dividends for the service internationally.

“WE are an OTT service first and foremost, but we need to provide our content outside of our four walls to grow our brand and to drive sports fans back to our service,” he said. “We will be producing content especially for Pluto featuring our marquee fighters to the Pluto audience.”

The deal comes as DAZN prepares to offer several marquee fights over the next two months including the Oct. 26 Regis Prograis-Josh Taylor WBA super lightweight championship; the Nov. 2 Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev light heavyweight championship; the Nov. 7 Naoya Inoue-Nonito Donaire bantamweight championship; the Nov. 9 KSI-Logan Paul II boxing event; and the Dec. 7 Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua II heavyweight championship.

“We’re able to put DAZN content in front of the paywall, which allows us to grow our brand and drive people to our key upcoming events,” Markowski said. He added that DAZN will look to partner with other content distributors across a number of platforms in an effort to gain exposure for the brand.

“This fall, DAZN has the best possible schedule in boxing and we’ll be looking to send that message across as many channels as possible,” Markowski said. 

When Showtime and HBO teamed to distribute the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao pay-per-view boxing event in 2015, it brought together the two champions of the PPV distribution business.

That fight went on to set the all-time record for pay-per-view boxing event buys while solidifying HBO and Showtime’s position as the preeminent distributors of high-profile  boxing events.

Fast forward just four years to today, and the PPV boxing marketplace has changed significantly. Sports streaming services such as ESPN+ and DAZN have muscled their way into the business and have secured the rights to marquee fights like the Nov. 2 Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev fight and the Dec. 7 Anthony Joshua-Andy Ruiz Jr. bout -- both championship fights will stream live on the DAZN $20 monthly subscription service -- that a few years ago would have cost fight fans $60 or more to watch via PPV.

When fights do make it to the traditional PPV platform, such as the Nov. 23 Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz II heavyweight championship match, its Fox Sports -- and not Showtime or HBO -- more often than not delivering the event to boxing fans. In fact, Fox Sports has distributed four of the six major PPV boxing events in 2019, including Wilder-Ortiz. 

HBO last year hung up its PPV boxing gloves and completely stepped out of the TV boxing ring, due in part to the emergence of streaming competitors DAZN and ESPN+. Showtime -- which rang in 2019 with its January Manny Pacquiao-Adrien Broner PPV event -- is still a major player in the game, but recently negotiated and passed on the PPV rights to the Wilder-Ortiz rematch after the premium service distributed the March 2018 first bout between the fighters. 

“We did negotiate for the right to distribute the Wilder-Ortiz event via Showtime Pay-Per-View, but ultimately, we chose not to move forward ... the proposed deal terms didn’t make sense for us,” Showtime president of sports and entertainment programming Stephen Espinoza said. “Our strategy going forward remains unchanged, as we will continue to deliver the best boxing on TV for our subscribers and deliver, when the time is right, the sport’s biggest pay-per-view events.”

For Fox Sports, which distributed via PPV the Errol Spence-Mikey Garcia fight in March, the Manny Pacquiao-Keith Thurman fight in July and the Spence-Shawn Porter bout last month (pictured), the addition of Wilder-Ortiz is another piece in its growing portfolio of PPV sports content. 

“Fox Sports is thrilled to be working with the PBC and the most exciting heavyweight champion of the world, Deontay Wilder, for his next title defense against Luis Ortiz,” Bill Wanger, Fox Sports executive vice president and head of programming & scheduling said.“Deontay fought on Fox in 2016 and 2017 and had more than 2.5 million viewers watching each time. His popularity has exploded since then, and we’re expecting this to be a can’t-miss night of boxing.”

If Wilder wins, industry sources say Fox Sports is expected to team with ESPN to distribute a Wilder-Tyson Fury rematch fight during first quarter 2020 in what could be the biggest PPV event since Showtime's 2017 Mayweather-Conor McGregor PPV fight. It would also usher in a new generation of boxing content providers working together to bring the biggest PPV fights to the category. 

“Much like when HBO was going against and working with Showtime, I think you have the same dynamic today, but it’s been reinvented for a new set of platforms,”sports analyst Lee Berke said.