On Monday we covered the fun to watch Prizefighter tournament Quarter Finals, and broke down some of the reasons why the show, despite being entertaining, and unique idea for a Japanese show, ended up being a flop. Today we stumbled on more information regarding the issue of the event, and it became more and more apparent that we had overlooked some serious concerns, which showed just how poorly promoted the event actually was. An article on Ronspo broke down a lot of interesting things we’d overlooked, and even over-looked a few things themselves. They noted that originally the plan wasn’t to host the show in Nagoya in March, but instead in January at Noevir Stadium Kobe, the home of J-League's Vissel Kobe. God only knows how they were expecting to fill the 30,000 seat stadium but the venue does make at least a tiny bit of sense, given it’s the home of Vissel Kobe, who's former player and legendary Spanish midfielder Andrés Iniesta is the co-founder of Never Say Never (NSN), the organiser of the event, and will have some connections to Kobe. First we need to make some things clear, as there has been disagreement on a few things, including a “site fee”. The venue used was the Yamato Arena, a facility on the campus of Yamato University, not exactly a venue paying a site fee. In fact the venue is booked daily at a price of 800,000JPY (Around $5,100). This is not a site paying a fee, but a University facility, charging a hire fee. Admittedly a tiny fee, but a fee all the same. Also reports are saying the venue was set up not for the full 4,800 but for just 3,000 seats, of which only around 30% were taken, and even that seems a flattering exaggeration. With no attendance figure announced by the promoter following it’s fair to say the crowd was embarrassingly small. The calendar for the venue is bare, to say the least, and it seems surprising, that tickets weren't essentially given to students to paper the venue, and at least give the feel of a successful show. Secondly, there was no Japanese broadcast of the event. It wasn’t on Abema, DAZN (in fact it even states on the poster that DAZN “Worldwide (excluding Asia)"), wasn’t on Rakuten’s streaming service. The nearest it got to being broadcast, according to Ronspo, was when it was in negotiations with BS broadcasters. BS (or Broadcasting Satellite) has been used to broadcast boxing over the years, such as WOWOW and BS Fuji, but isn’t a regular thing, especially not for domestic cards. The money for a BS broadcast and audience numbers, tend to be small, and they don’t have the same reach as one of the streaming giants. Regardless, no deal was reached, with Fukamachi having said "there were issues with the station's programming, so it was difficult this time." (Ronspo) As a result, there was no Japanese broadcast money for the event. And third is that there were sponsors. Technically this is true, with Matchroom, NSN, and Rakuten Ticket. Of the three, it’s unclear how much money was put in by Matchroom and NSN, though Rakuten are reported to have put 200 million JPY (about $1.28 million) into the project. Money that, for all intents, doesn’t actually cover a lot, when first round prizes alone, including the knockout bonus paid to the fighters, account for more than 50% of that value. Prior to the show the organisers were struggling to get a promoter involved, going as far as to offer a reported 1,000,000JPY (around $6400) to two local promoters in the hope of working with one of them. They both said no, with quotes stating "We cannot take responsibility if the event is canceled again", (Ronspo) essentially suggesting the reputation of the organisers was already causing genuine issues, and there was a risk of reputational harm for the promoters. This resulted in Katsuo Tokashiki re-applying for a promoters license, after his had expired, for the 3 show Prize Fighter series to use his, and allow Shinji Fukamachi, to serve as the general producer of the event. Fukamachi is experienced working in the sport, but his approach for this event was completely wrong, as revealed when he spoke with former fighter Valentine Hosokawa. When asked by Hosokawa, on Hosokawa’s youtube channel, “If they had done a lot of promotion with 200 million yen... Why didn't they do that (public relations and advertising activities) this time?” Fukamachi answered by saying, "That's a really good question," before adding "Because I've already spent the money," .He expanded that answer "I agree with the way they (Matchroom, NSN, Rakuten Tickets) spend their money. We (the boxing industry) are nothing if not for the boxers. That's where they spend their money. Even if only a few people happen to watch (due to a lack of PR and advertising), if they say, 'Wow, that was interesting,' I think it will spread rapidly. If you spend money to promote a not-so-great fighter, you won't move people's hearts." Essentially it seems like he was hoping to sell tickets on the back of word of mouth, for an event no one knew about, or could see. Fukamachi, who has worked in major roles with both 3150 Fight and Watanabe gym, should have known better, especially with how 3150 built its reputation on good marketing, strong shows, exciting fights, having Koki and Daiki Kameda talk to the media, and getting the message out there, rather than the flawed logic of “If you build it, they will come” In fairness Hosokawa did share his own view on the matter, stating "I think it's great to spend 100% of your money on the product. From the perspective of modern business, though, I think the allocation of (the funds) is extremely strange." This was reported on Sponichi, in one of the rare times the show got any major national attention. Now, back to the broadcasting issues. The March date was supposed to be aired as part of joint-promotion with Koki Kameda, and his 3150 Fight series. It appears that there was a lot of issues with that, and whilst Kameda hasn’t made a statement outside of saying "I don't really understand the reason for the cancellation," And telling the press to ask the others involved in the deal. Cristian Jover, who’s an executive at NSN, being quoted as saying "There were various reasons why the contract could not be agreed upon." Following that break down the relationship with 3150 and broadcaster Ameba broke down, with both likely feeling let down by the cancelation of the bouts on just a few weeks notice, which resulted on Abema scrapping a planned PPV broadcast. Notably it appears the issues with Abema and the changes to when the event was taking place may have put other broadcasters off, with a quote on Ronspo being "The schedule for the match changed several times, and we were unsure whether it would actually happen, so we couldn't fix the distribution. We didn't know the athletes who were participating...", (Ronspo) and whilst the quote isn’t attributed to a specific person, it is reportedly from someone working for a Distribution Channel. This is similar to what the two promoters who were approached to do the show had also said, and it seems like the reputational harm of the cancellations is going to be hard to shake. Notably Abema's logo was on the original poster for the show, showing the original 8 man line up for the event, and wasn't replaced when the show was rescheduled, as no broadcaster had picked up the event. Interestingly the poster for the July date did have a note next to the DAZN logo stating "Worldwide (Excluding Asia)", in Japanese, something that was actually absent from this original poster. Given the first show, the quarter finals, failed to generate any interest, it seems likely that those behind the event will put money into promoting the Semi-Finals, which are reportedly set to take place at the Makuhari Messe in October with the finals coming in February next year. Jover has said, for the semi-final show, “We also have plans to bring the world's top fighters to Japan and hold a big event" (Ronspo). That might be needed for the tournament that is now playing catch up with it’s self following the repeated missteps. Notably the Makuhari Messe has been used for hosting before, though it has only held 3 shows and is, again, not a venue known for boxing having last held a show years go. Another potential misstep, that shows the naivety of those involved in these events, who have seemingly chosen to ignore boxing hotspots and familiar venues, that promoters and fans are familiar with, and have a track record. Such as the EDION Arena in Osaka, the Convention Center in Nagoya, Korakuen Hall, the Sumiyoshi Ward Cente. Chiba, where the Makuhari Messe is, is a city rarely used for boxing, and it appears, again, like those responsible for the event have used very little understanding of how to promote boxing. Also none of the Japanese fighters left in the tournament are from the local area, and the names already on the show will also not attract fans, so Jover really will need to break the bank to sell the event on imported foreign fighters. Something that, given the spending on the quarter finals, seems highly unlikely. Fukamachi has shared a promising vision, saying "We want to produce boxers from Japan and Asia who can compete on the world stage. Thanks to the success of Inoue Naoya, the world knows that Japanese boxing is getting stronger at the lower levels, including amateurs. There will be many more strong boxers coming out of Japan. We want to discover such players, and I think that if we promote them well in larger weight classes, the players will also develop." (Ronspo) Sadly the idea of having an 8 man tournament with 3 Japanese fighters and one from China, against imported fighters, is not the way to develop that talent. Especially not with a huge budget being spent on the event. It’s known that Ohashi and Dangan are putting on their own Asia-wide Heavyweight tournament, and that is trying to find the diamonds in the rough, and let fighters develop, with 16 fighters being sought for the tournament. Their way of doing things seems to be the more achievable one, giving time for competitors to come forward, keeping it Asian centric, likely putting it on at Korakuen Hall, taking fighters from 4 round novices to discover fighters. The other issue with Fukamachi’s logic is that the show didn’t feature anyone outside of the 8 Middleweight fighters, there was no way to spot new talent. The Japanese talent on the event had included 2 former domestic amateur standouts, in Kazuto Takesako and Riku Kunimoto, who were both fast tracked on the domestic scene, and Eiki Kani, who came through the Rookie of the Year tournament. The problem, in many ways, is that the tournament never seemed to know who it was catering to, or why, and as a result didn’t really cater to any of its perceived targets. Japanese fans were unable to watch the bouts being broadcast, and no one knew of the show to attend, European fans, where 3 of the fighters were from, were likely at work when the event was on, on a Monday morning, and American fans were likely asleep. For those who tuned in, it was a lot of fun, though had it been hold on a Saturday or Sunday morning more could have watched on DAZN, had it been priced properly, placed in a suitable venue, and marketed domestically it could have drawn a decent crowd, and had it been broadcast in Japan it would have opened the door to some new interest. Instead it missed the mark in every way and in many ways shows that NSN, Matchroom, Rakuten, and Fukamachi all dropped the ball, all need to take responsibility, all need to get together, and all need to use their areas of expertise to do better. NSN claim to have a history of connecting sports with fans, but failed to connect this event with fans domestically, and putting it on a Monday morning also wasn’t a smart idea for international views. They were likely responsible for the high ticket prices, and a lot of the issues that had happened behind the scenes, including the original Kobe venue falling through and the joint promotion with 3150. They also included very little content about the show on their own website, and social media. Matchroom are a global sporting powerhouse, but seem to have gotten into bed with companies who had no idea what they were doing, damaging their reputation, and showing that their global expansion is full of hiccups that they still haven’t smoothed out. They are a sports company, a boxing company, even they know, surely, that an overpriced event, with no local draw, no under-card, and cost cutting at every corner, was going to fail and make them look bad. Rakuten have put a lot of money into the venture, and it seems clear they won’t be recouping their investment, but questions also need to be asked as to why their own streaming service didn’t pick up the broadcast at the 11th hour, to at least give a domestic broadcast outlet to the show. They tried to ticket the event with NFT’s, of all things, and seemingly did an awful job in trying to promote an event they had invest so much in. And Fukamachi should have known much, much better. He should have used his experience, his specialised local knowledge, and made sure this was promoted properly, held at a “boxing venue”, and acted like the foundation to a new movement, rather than expect fans to do the heavy lifting. Reports are that almost no media attended the weigh in, there was no media work outs arranged, the Japanese press were seemingly absent from the events, with only a handful attending the weigh in. We’re not sure who handles the domestic Twitter for Prizefighter Japan, but at the time of writing, that has less than 100 followers, showing just what a mis-promoted event the whole thing was and how little traction it had. One question that will be asked is will Matchroom have made a loss? Financially, probably not or at least not a major one, if one at all. The venue was cheap, there was essentially no money spent on marketing the event, Rakuten Tickets seemingly footed the bill for the event, which apparently all went to the fighters rather than using it to boost the profile of the show to attract any fans. They will however have left a poor first mark on Japan, and first impressions mean a lot. The impression here is that they couldn't be bothered, did nothing to build an event with their name on it, and shrugged their shoulders when it wasn’t going to be a success. Whilst it seems a lot of the decisions taken were out of their hands, with Fukamachi and NSN calling many of the shots, the fact this was Matchroom's Japanese debut, this was the return of Matchroom's Prize Fighter tournament, this was an empty arena show with Matchroom involved, will be a reputational kick in the groin, and maybe a sign they need to be more hands on with this venture. They are the boxing promoters, they should know what does, and doesn’t, general work, and should have seen this being a flop some distance away, and stepped in to course correct. One also needs to ask, why was this even marketed as a Prize fighter tournament? The name and branding had success, between 2008 and 2015, but the name hadn’t been used in almost a decade, after being out played in the UK. The format, a one-night 8-man tournament, can’t be replicated in Japan due to the JBC rules* regarding fighters fighting more than once. It didn’t make sense to use the branding, when another name could have been used, creating a new tournament style format that could have been expanded world wide. Tournament boxing is a regular thing in Japan, with the very notable Rookie of the Year being the most famous, they didn’t need the Prizefighter name attached for the purpose of making a tournament, something simple like “KO Middleweight Tournament” would have sufficed, and that’s an idea had in 15 seconds. They could have done what other promoters had done and linked up with a former fighter for the tournament to use their name, like we’d previously seen with “God’s Left Bantamweight” and “Knockout Dynamite” tournaments, which linked with Shinsuke Yamanaka and Takashi Uchiyama, and made it “The Ryota Murata Middleweight Tournament” or something, to appeal to the locals and sell on the name of a notable Japanese Middleweight. It's worth noting that the Bantamweight tournament final saw an unbeaten Kazuki Nakajima, who lost to TJ Doheny last year, face Seiya Tsutusmi, who is expected to fight for a world title at the end of 2024. For all involved this was a shameful experience, it lacked any sort of joined up thinking, and as more details emerge it appears more and more like a bunch of rank amateurs were responsible. NSN, Rakuten and Matchroom have got a deal to do 3 shows a year over 3 years, though we wonder how much they are all regretting getting into bed with each other, or having such a long commitment together.
Could the tournament be salvaged and turned into a success? Sure, but it will take a huge overhaul in mentalities to do that. The semi final needs to be made much more public, more accessible, more viewable, money needs to go into the promotion of the event, the promoter needs to put on a main event local fans care about. They need to scrap the idea of going to Chiba in October and go to one of the established boxing venues which they need to fill out with passionate fans, rather than have a handful of high paying fans in an empty venue, to build some atmosphere. They need to get some solid domestic under-card fighters, and try and grab a domestic title fight for the show to attract some organic attention. They need to embrace the media, hold public work outs, media days, make fans aware, and then make them care. It’s impossible to care about something you don’t even know exists. It is fair to ask how accurate or fair the Ronspo articles are, but we do know several facts that can’t be disputed. Fukamachi did say there was almost no advertising done as he wanted to put the money on the product, the fighters, not into marketing, we know the venue is small, and didn’t look even close to full. There was no Japanese broadcast. The media presence was insignificant at best, with very few publications carrying anything on the event, there was no major media days, NSN did no real publicity themselves. Rakuten are incredibly big and can write off the cost, but won’t be happy about it. There was real apathy even among those who knew about the show in Japan. It was on a Monday during the day time hours, limiting the viewing potential DAZN had in their broadcast in the west. Ticket prices were incredibly overpriced. There was no chance to discover new Japanese fighters, given the 3 local fighters were already known quantities. Bridges have been burned, resulting in no broadcasting partner, and Tokashiki being the “promoter”, having never promoted in Osaka and not having promoted a show since 2019. To go back to the original point as to why this was a flop. It’s simple. No one knew about it. It might be hard for fans in the West to grasp that, given that they knew, but in Japan only the most hardcore of fans knew, and without digging deep for tickets, and getting to Suita, there was no way to watch, leading even some of those who cared, to not care. Or at least not care enough. *They could have done it without JBC sanction, but that would have further cut into the way the card was seen, as a renegade promotion, and essentially prevented Matchroom from working with JBC promoters in Japan in the future. (Note all translations are machine translations and whilst they maybe grammatically incorrect when translated, they are all left unedited) Sources https://news.goo.ne.jp/article/ronspo/sports/ronspo-7627.html https://www.sponichi.co.jp/battle/news/2024/07/08/kiji/20240708s00021000371000c.html https://www.ronspo.com/articles/2024/2024071601/ https://www.ronspo.com/articles/2024/2024071502/
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Last week we saw the unexpected, and much maligned, announcement of Logan Paul Vs Mike Tyson. The bout has plenty of issues, and if we’re being honest it’s not a fight that we suspect many boxing fans want to watch, however it is likely to be the biggest watched fight of 2024, and one of the biggest of all time. That sounds hyperbolic, but the reality is that the fight genuinely could set some amazing viewing figures and could be the fight that kick starts a new era in boxing. An era that was always going to come, but an era that probably needed a “freak fight” or “circus event” to kick start, rather than a “boxing event” to get off the floor. Especially in a world where boxing is such a fractured mess of a sport, with too many people having their fingers in the pie.
The reason the fight will be so widely viewed, and why it will begin a new era of boxing comes completely down to the broadcaster of the event. Netflix. In recent years we have seen boxing move from being a mostly TV based sport to more and more online formats. It’s gone from Showtime and HBO in the US, and Fuji TV, NTV, Tokyo TV, G+ and TBS in Japan, and gone mostly online. There is still boxing on TV in some countries, but we’ve definitely seen a huge rise in online distribution of boxing. Services like DAZN, Amazon Prime, AmebaTV, Thriller and Boxing Raise, among others, have picked up the sport and taken it from TV to online. They’ve all found a niche, so far, but they’ve yet to really have that monster event that earns massive traction and clicks with the casual fan. There will be some people suggestion DAZN or Amazon have managed it, but in reality neither have come close. In fact what Netflix could do, could be multiple times bigger than anything DAZN or Amazon have done with the sport. DAZN has tried to penetrate the sports market globally, with boxing as one of it’s prongs. It’s been an unmitigated failure on it’s early promise and in many Netflix’s move into sports could show how toothless DAZN has been. When it began in certain territories DAZN was dubbed the “Netflix of sports”, the reality is that it was more an obscure service, appealing to a few million people world wide, and completely unable to move the needle. It struggled to make stars in the sport, and the stars that went there made money, but seemed to lose profile. A great example of that is Anthony Joshua, who seemed like a much bigger star in the UK when he was on Sky Sports, whilst Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was their tent peg signing, and has since left the service, with his next bout being on Amazon Prime PPV. DAZN’s early promise for boxing explicitly was that it was the PPV killer, and essentially your subscription would get you all the content the service was going to create. Since then however prices have consistently been going up, PPV’s have been put on the service, and it has failed to kill PPV off, whilst also failing to become the Netflix of sport and failing to be more than a relatively niche service. DAZN claim to have “over 60 million registered premium users and 300 million monthly customers", which sounds great, but they are still making a loss of over $1Billion and it really doesn’t seem like it’s had the traction needed for them to fulfill their plans of being the “Netflix of sport”. They have failed to get things like the Premier League rights in the UK or NFL in the US. The two sports, in their relevant regions, that could have really changed their fortunes. Their coverage is varied, and there’s no doubting that they’ve picked up some obscure and interesting cards, but they’ve fallen a long way short of their early promise, and really struggled to turn their service into the online global home of sport. Amazon Prime, so far, haven’t really done a lot with boxing. So far their biggest impact on the sport has been picking up some huge shows in Japan, including bouts feature Naoya Inoue, Junto Nakatani and the huge bout between Gennady Golovkin and Ryota Murata, which was aired on DAZN in some DAZN markets. Outside of Japan they’ve not really had much of an impact on the sport, with their big shows all being picked up by other services internationally and essentially only being significant in Japan and working with others, rather than leveraging their global position to market events. That’s set to change, and they’ve recently signed a deal with PBC and will broadcast PBC events, including Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s upcoming bout with Jamie Munguia. Going forward, though it does seem the focus will be PPV events, rather than regular events for subscribers, as we’ll see with the upcoming clash between Tim Tszyu and Keith Thurman and the aforementioned Canelo bout. Having mentioned how Amazon Prime shows, so far, have focused on Japan, with the broadcasts being picked up by partners in the West, such as ESPN+, it’s worth noting that even the big kick start to Amazon Prime’s boxing content in the West will be doing the same. As mentioned it will be on Amazon Prime PPV in the US, it will also be PPV in Australia, with Kayo and Main Event, and on WOWOW in Japan. The UK broadcaster hasn’t, at the time of writing, been confirmed. With around 230,000,000 subscribers Amazon has the potential to change the face of boxing. For that to happen however they would need to make changes to the way they cover the sport, and leverage their full potential and weight behind what they do. Part of that will be to give free content, essentially adding value to the subscription they offer for sports fans, something that seems inevitable as the streaming wars take a huge step up. The second, and the more notable one, is that they will need to stop sharing their global rights to events. The events they do really should be global events, on Amazon Prime, with Amazon Prime Video being in control of the broadcast around the world, offering multiple language for commentary, and running the entire thing exclusively under their banner. Enter Netflix. The Paul Vs Tyson bout might not feature a current elite level boxer, or a world champion, or even someone near a world title. It does however feature two huge names, with crossover appeal, and international recognition. Tyson might be a retired old man more than 30 years removed from his prime, and you might absolutely despise what the Paul brothers do, but there is no denying the fact that both are huge names, who have massive profile and can easily generate buzz. Everyone over the age of 25 knows who Mike Tyson is, whether it’s from remember him in his prime, the controversy he had, the ear biting of Evander Holyfield, his place in history or seeing him on referenced in TV shows and general pop culture. As for Paul, he’s a modern day social media mega star, who has genuinely crossed over, and whilst his boxing career leaves a lot to be desired in the eyes of many, he has a huge following, especially among the under 25’s. What the bout is, however, is a Netflix production. A Netflix event. An added value offering from Netflix, who are getting involved in live sports and live sports entertainment. And are putting this on their subscription service, globally, not behind a PPV, and not sharing the broadcast around different parts of the world. This isn’t like Amazon Prime Japan working with ESPN+ for the US broadcast, or Amazon Prime in the US hiding their fights behind a second paywall, instead this is Netflix, leveraging their position as a streaming giant, with 260,000,000 subscribers to showcase what they can do. If Netflix play their cards right, they will not only have a huge audience for their first ever boxing event, but also open the door to future follow on events. If Paul and Netflix are smart, they will actually load this card with exciting, fun, easy to watch TV friendly fighters, and use it as a showcase not just for Netflix but also as a real window for emerging talent. It’s unlikely Netflix will want to be one and done in boxing after a circus main event, so being able to market their next event(s) based on who’s on the under-card will be a smart move, and giving someone like Amanda Serrano a major fight on the show, perhaps rescheduling her recently canceled bout with Nina Meinke could help really build the profile of future events. Yes, we have seen a lot of false dawns in boxing, and yes major bouts will never be free to air again, at least not like they used to be, but with Netflix set to lay down a marker of sorts with the Paul Vs Tyson bout, capturing an incredible global audience, and showing what can happen when the streaming service takes global rights of an even, we could well be set to see a genuine change in how boxing is shown. We might well see Netflix become the Netflix of sport, doing what DAZN promised, and failed. Alternatively they might be one and done, though with WWE content coming to Netflix in the future, we suspect Netflix will want to out do Amazon Prime and DAZN, and prove themselves to be the daddy when it comes to online streaming services. Their foray into boxing comes, not with a whimper or an obscure bout that appeals only to boxing fans, but instead a global crossover event. They are putting down a marker from day 1. And the other services will need to find ways to match the global appeal of Paul Vs Tyson. Whether you feel the bout is a joke, a dangerous event, an exhibition, something that shouldn’t be sanctioned, it’s hard to deny that Netflix, will almost certainly smash the viewing figures of any other fight this year, with their shrewd bit of business and their willingness to “give this away for free”. The real question isn’t about this event, but whether Netflix can capitalise on it, if so there is no doubting Netflix have the tools needed to really change this industry. They have the subscribers, the money, the connections and the technology to completely shake up boxing. If they want to. And, whether we like it or not, it could well be that Jake Paul is the spearhead for this potentially massive change. We’ll need to wait and see, but Paul along with Netflix, have certainly changed industries in the past, and we can’t put it past them doing it again here. The may have started showing sport after Amazon Prime and DAZN, but with just 1 event, they could well catch up, and quickly over take their two rivals. Over the last few years we've seen DAZN become one of the main players in boxing distribution world wide, working with Matchroom and Golden Boy Promotions, as well as the WBSS to show a lot of action. The service, at least in some regions, the best value for money for boxing fans, and their recently rumoured deal with Matchroom, which will see them replace Sky as Matchroom's UK distributor, is huge for British fight fans.
Whilst it has certainly been a breath of fresh air in many ways, DAZN has been very much a mixed bag, with some great things, and some absolutely terrible things about the service. We've going to take a look at some of those here as we take a look at the good and the bad of DAZN so far. The Good Showcasing the lower weights One of the standout things about DAZN is the fact they've active shown a lot of lower weight fighters. Over the last few years they have given us some of the best Super Flyweight, Flyweight and Light Flyweight action, and snapped up many of the top fighters between those two weights. The likes of Hiroto Kyoguchi, Elwin Soto, Felix Alvarado, Hasanboy Dusmatov, Julio Cesar Martinez, Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai have all had bouts shown on their service. As someone who actually follows these divisions it's been great to see these fighters getting a large platform to showcase their skills on and hopefully that is something we'll see continue well beyond the pandemic, rather than be used as relatively cheap action bouts by the promoters. Hopefully we'll also see the Minimumweight division get a chance to be showcased on the service as well. Smartly the promoters at DAZN have realised these little men can put on fan friendly bouts and those will help build the fanbase of the division's, and the fighters, leading to relatively cheap but fan grabbing bouts. Showcasing female boxing As with the little men the service has also done well in showcasing a lot of female boxing. We've had Eddie Hearn responsible for that on the whole, but Golden Boy may well have the pick of the female fighters in Seneisa Estrada, who has all the tools to become the face of female boxing for the next 4 or 5 years. The female fights, like the lower weight fighters, are cheaper than the big names, but have provided some of the best action that DAZN have managed to give us. It has also helped "normalise" female boxing, something that has long been over-due in the west. Fingers crossed that the fighters showcased now on the service will lead the way for a true women's revolution in the sport over the next 10 years. We know some fans are still not interested in female, and that's fine, though we suspect as the depth of female boxing improves, inspired by the current fighters, we'll begin to see more and more notable female fighters, more interesting match ups, and an overall much better quality and consistency of bouts. DAZN need to be given a heads up here. Boxing from around the world! DAZN is a global platform, in fact in many ways it's boxing's only global platform right now, and it's embraced that well with shows from a host of countries. They have had the US and UK obviously, but their deal with WP Boxing in Thailand is great, and they have touched on shows in places like Italy and Gibraltar, of all places, as well as a recent show from Uzbekistan. The platform is, by far and away, the most adventurous when it comes to their range of shows and that's something to be really appreciative of. Fingers crossed however that more countries begin to have shows aired on the service. Regularly content from places like Japan, Germany, Russia and Canada would be hugely welcome, and would genuinely add a lot to the service. And would also help build on solid DAZN subscriptions in some of those places. It would be great to see Western fans get a chance to experience the shows from Korakuen Hall, and hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later. Even if it's only low level cards to begin with. The Pricing Arguably the best thing about DAZN is the pricing of the service, even if the price has changed somewhat in some regions over the last year or two. The service is much, much cheaper than a typical PPV event, and it provides genuinely good value for money. In fact it's probably the best value for money service in boxing right now. That's not to say it's perfect, but it is allowing the sport to be accessible at a solid price point, for a lot of good fights. How long it can maintain a price advantage over things like Showtime, ESPN+, Sky Sports and BT Sports is questionable, but at the moment it is still easy the best value for money. The Bad The commentary Our major gripe with DAZN, and one we suspect many share, is the commentary which is terrible show after show, after show. The service employs some really poor commentators, that don't seem to fit well together, spend more time bickering like a married couple and don't add to the bout. They also don't let the bouts talk for themselves, and often seem to distract from the in ring action. The likes of Sergio Mora, Chris Mannix, Todd Grisham, Nick Halling and Paul Smith really have been poor and it's often been really hard to note wish that their was a commentary free feed. Whilst the bickering between them is one thing, other issues are factual inaccuracies and issues which really shouldn't be aired. For example the homer-isms of the British team, which often seem more like cheerleaders rather the commentators, and the almost ignorance that certain commentators have of the lower weights, despite the fact the service has been showing a lot of heavy handed little guys. It may be the researchers aren't giving them the right information to go off, but we suspect that in some cases it's a more just ignorance on how boxing is right now. If we were in charge we would give a massive shake up to their broadcasts, bring in Chris Algieri and Gabe Rosado a lot more often, as they are very good, and bring the US team down to just 2 men, not three. Not enough content Whilst certain regions are different here, the UK DAZN has got boxing as it's bread and butter, strangely alongside some recent video game content. Sadly though there simply enough content to really work. To go with the live fights the service does have things like The DAZN boxing show, Training Room, press conferences, and weigh ins. But it feels like there is so much emptiness on their schedule. It would be good to see in depth shows looking at some of the less known fighters and their lives, something A-Sign boxing did last year to great success. Sit down sessions with fighters in a round table discussion format, maybe with former fighters discussing their rivalries. More interviews. A documentaries on more fights from the past and fighters from yesteryear. More magazine type shows would also add to the service. The world of boxing is huge and yet the focus of a lot of these shows is really limited, mostly US and UK centric and mostly focused on modern history, and it would be great if they began shining lights on the non-stars or fighters from more than 15 years ago or stuff from Mexico and Puerto Rico, or Germany. Expand the scope of what's being talked about, massively. Some will point to "Boxing with Chris Mannix" and "Jabs", the "Playbacks" and the odd documentary, which is great as a start but nothing to get too excited about. The service might provide the best value for money live boxing, but it provides very little in terms of shoulder programming, and we suspect that a change their could help massively with the feeling of emptiness the schedule has. The way the service promotes future events For some customers the service is one that they will be paying in advance, and that certainly stung last year when DAZN had a lack of content due to the pandemic and really should have paused the subscriptions of users until sport returned, but for others it's a monthly service. Sadly the way they promote to monthly customers is generally really poor. Quote often they will put up on screen graphics of what they have lined up, but will only include their supposedly biggest shows, even if they are several months away. It makes sense to tell monthly subscribers what they are getting next month as well. If we're in March I want to know why I should subscribe through April, not what you have in May. Show me what's to come in May during April. Work with the monthly cycle to show me what's going to be coming up before I pay next, and let me decide if I want to stop and start the subscription. This is actually the same issue, in some regards, to what Boxing Raise has, and it seems a really easy fix. Simply show me what you are showing next month, and the rest of this month! Viola! Non-streamed fights This is the stupidest thing DAZN do, and that is not show the full event. This is just a bizarre one, given that they aren't stuck by the typical broadcasting limitations of TV but still, for whatever reason, don't always show the full event. This mean two bouts from a recent Uzbek card weren't aired and the big upset loss for Otha Jones II wasn't broadcast. We know some shows go long, and some do drag, especially when most the bouts are predictable, but there's no reason to not show the bouts on events you're covering! It happens regularly and there's not really any good reason for it. Overall Overall I think DAZN are a really good thing for boxing, I think so far their foray into the sport has generally been a success, but there is a lot of of areas where they can improve. And lot of those improvements are easy to make. Genuinely very easy to make. A change in the way future shows are promoted, a change in commentary and showing all the fights isn't a massively difficult thing for them to do. We understand that increase in extra content will be costly, but is certainly not an impossibility, and would help fill out some barren scheduling issues. Picking up more international cards is unlikely, unless Matchroom or Golden Boy expand into some territories that seem unlikely for now, but there's little reason that local promoters shouldn't be given a chance on DAZN, where Matchroom or Golden Boy could potentially see them feeders for their bigger events. Showcasing some more of the Cruisers, Super Flyweight and Light Flyweights from around the planet before matching them with their own fighters would be a great way to introduce new fighters and legitimise less well known future challengers. The service is good, the service is fantastic value for money, and it's given us a chance to enjoy fights that typically wouldn't have had many eyeballs on them. But it's still got a long way to go to become the focus point of world boxing. For now it's a service that is behind where it should be, though we do expect rapid improvements over the next 12 months, but is one that has shown a lot of promise. Is DAZN good for boxing fans? Yes. Can it do better? Certainly! Are we fans despite incessant complaints? Yes! Over the last few weeks we've seen DAZN snapping up talent and building a very strong stable of fighters to work with through different promotional tie ups, notably working hand in hand with Matchroom US, World of Boxing and Golden Boy Promotions. They have seen the streaming service become more talked about than almost any fighter in the sport right now. One market they've not yet cracked, at least for boxing, is the Japanese market, despite being available in the country for quite a while now. DAZN is available in Japan, and is relatively big there with rights for things like the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball), UEFA Champions League, La Liga, Premier League, the J League, F1, various Tennis and Rugby competitions, a number of MMA companies and even some professional darts. Their content library is solid in several areas, but not in boxing. They do also show some boxing, but by some I really do mean "some". Most of their boxing content is from the US, and whilst that has shown some Japanese fighters, including Ryota Murata, Ryohei Takahashi and Takeshi Inoue, they haven't exactly been shown at prime time. Instead they have been shown live, at the same time as their bouts have taken place in the US, giving them a mid-day type of time slot. The idea seems to be for the channel to appeal to Japanese audiences on the value of Western fighters, which does have it's place with Japanese fight fans, though maybe not as big of a place as DAZN would like. This means that not only are the fans rarely able to see Japanese fighters on the service, but that a lot of the fights they get on the service aren't at a great time for their audience numbers, and there is actually a pretty good reason for this. The rather unique thing about Japanese boxing is that, for the most part, their biggest fighters are available on free TV. Fighters like WBA "regular" Bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue, WBO Super Featherweight champion Masayuki Ito, WBC Light Flyweight champion Kenshiro, WBC "interim" Bantamweight champion Takuma Inoue and former WBA "regular" Middleweight champion Ryota Murata are all linked to Fuji TV, for fights held in Japan. On the other hand WBA "super" Light Flyweight champion Hiroto Kyoguchi, former 3-weight champion Kazuto Ioka, former unified Light Flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi are all inked to TBS, and WBO Flyweight champion Kosei Tanaka is inked with TBS' affiliate CBC, which allows TBS to show his fights. Notably it does look like it's not just the present tied up with TBS and Fuji TV but also the future with TBS having a working relationship with Watanabe, who promote prospects like Ginjiro Shigeoka and Seiya Tsutsumi as well as up coming world title challenger Masataka Taniguchi, whilst Fuji's deal with Ohashi Gym is likely to see Fuji having exclusivity on Satoshi Shimizu and Taku Kuwahara, among others. The only real outlier to this is Tomoki Kameda, who does have a streaming deal, albeit with Abema TV, who have shown his last few fights for free. They appear to be working strongly with Kyoei and the Koki Kameda TFC series of shows, so Kameda is also off the table, at least for now. Unlike in the US Japanese fight fans aren't accustomed to paying for boxing, especially not for their top guys. They also see their fighters fighting on free TV in front of a multi-million people audiences, with their profiles becoming huge as a result Saying that however they have had the ability to pay for some boxing, with Boxingraise offering some VOD and live domestic action, G+ being a premium service that shows a monthly live domestic card and WOWOW showing some international content, but on the whole it's rare to see boxing on pay TV in Japan. Even services that did once offer paid options, such as GAORA and Sky A+ have now all but stopped their boxing content. GAORA hasn't shown anything in years and we believe the last Sky A+ boxing card featured Naoko Fujioka against Shindo Go. If we do look at the available pay options for Japanese fans they cater to 2 different markets. Boxingraise is outlier in a lot to how boxing content works in Japan, with it being a combination of a streaming and Video on Demand service. It is run by Dangan, who promote a number of shows every month, and is available online. It is a boxing only service, that typically shows 1 live card a month and adds 4 or 5 new shows on a delay basis, whether it's a classic card or a recent one is dependent on the activity of any given month. At ¥980 it's affordable, but it is boxing only content, and will cater to those who are hardcore fans only. Notable this is actually available outside of Japan though is one that only hardcore fans are ever likely to be interested in. WOWOW is a general premium service, showing a combination of movies, live content, musical concerts and things like the Oscars. Basically if you get WOWOW you're unlikely to get it mainly for the sport. It has a traditional fan base, having been around since the 1990's and it's boxing content is not significant enough to get the channel just for boxing. Think of it as the Japanese Showtime, without PPV if you will, with plenty of wide ranging contest. In regards to boxing it only shows big US bouts, often on delay. Some fighters are live but usually it's a delay broadcast. G+ is a more clear premium sports channel, and is a channel that is linked with free TV giant NTV. This is more of your Sky Sports type of thing, showing sport through the day with things like classic wrestling, golf, NASCAR, Boxing, a combination of classic, live and magazine shows. On average they do 1 live boxing card a month, though there is some leeway with that, and it's on a Saturday afternoon/evening, as part of their long established Dynamic Glove series. To add the channel on to a typical satellite package is ¥900, though of course you will need a satellite package to begin with. When DAZN launched in Japan it's main rival likely was SKY A+ and G+, both of which are premium sports channels. As mentioned SKY A+ no longer seems to show boxing, or haven't done for a while, but as a general sports channel it is DAZN's rival.
When DAZN launched in Japan it did so at a price point of ¥1750. Yet for a boxing fan, who already has a CS Satelite set up, that's not significantly cheaper than paying for G+ and Boxingraise, and getting a couple of live domestic cards, some archive stuff and getting the other benefits that come with G+. The pricing for SKY A+ is a bit more complicated than for DAZN or G+, due to it's tiers, but on the whole it does cost more than DAZN. It offers multiple channels, through the TV with multiple services on some of it's packages. With it not showing boxing however it's difficult to really talk about them as competition here, as in for this particular market, but they are certainly rivals in terms of general sports content. What DAZN is likely to do is to make SKY A+ cut their pricing and perhaps even force them to offer more versatility to their services, just to compete with what DAZN are offering. However that seems like it will just benefit consumers more than anything, at least in the short term. The big issue that DAZN is facing when breaking into the Japanese market, for boxing, is that it lacks live content in prime time. We suspect that we'll see Matchroom and Goldenboy using more Japanese challengers, to try help their broadcast partner's Japanese arm. What DAZN needs to make it in Japanese boxing market is a deal with a domestic promoter, at least one. Unfortunately for them it's hard to see where they go in regards to inking with a top promoter but there are options out there. A starting point could be World of Sport Boxing, who promote Takeshi Inoue, Japanese Middleweight champion Kazuto Takesako and a couple of promising prospects. Along with Shinsei Gym, who promote Etsuko Tada, Reiya Konishi, Shun Kubo and Yuki Yamauchi, though they have had a working relationship with Fuji TV in recent times. As well as the likes of Yokohama Hikari and Ichi Riki, who have worked together a lot recently. Between them they have not only Ryohei Takahashi but also Akihiro Kondo, Ryo Akaho and Keita Kurihara. It's also worth noting that Naoko Fujioka has worked on the same shows as the Ichi Riki and Yokohama Hikari fighters in recent times, which would give them a chance to continue that relationship If DAZN could link with those promoters they wouldn't have male world champions, but they would have 2 female world champions, a regular and steady stream of live shows in and around prime time, with the potential to build the names of fighters who could fight for world titles. For example Inoue is likely to get another shot down the line, Konishi is set to get a second world title fight, Kubo is world ranked and a former world champion, Kondo is set for a world title eliminator, and the prospects that they would tie up would give them a longer term plan. It would also allow DAZN's international arms a chance to showcase Japanese fighters before they get big fights, meaning that the likes of Takahashi and Inoue would have been more well known before making their US debuts recently. Will DAZN link up with Japanese promoters? There hasn't been much rumour about it, but we wouldn't be surprised if it happens in the future. It does make sense from a boxing point of view, and would be beneficial to the fighters, the promoters and DAZN as a whole, not just the Japanese arm, allowing them more content for their various international services, and help entice Japanese fight fans to buy into the service. |
Thinking Out East
With this site being pretty successful so far we've decided to open up about our own views and start what could be considered effectively an editorial style opinion column dubbed "Thinking Out East" (T.O.E). Archives
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