Anthony Joshua and Eddie Hearn launch DAZN together in the US this weekend against Alexander Povetkin.
Friday, September 21st
Jon Fernandez (16-0, 14 KOs) v O’Shaquie Foster (13-2, 8 KOs), junior lightweights & Irvin Gonzalez (10-0, 9 KOs) v Carlos Ramos (9-0, 6 KOs), featherweights & Wesley Ferrer (12-0-1, 7 KOs) v Steven Ortiz (8-0, 3 KOs), lightweights & James Wilkins (5-0, 5 KOs) v Misael Lopez (8-0, 4 KOs), junior lightweights – Shawnee, Oklahoma – Showtime, 10 PM Eastern
ShoBox is back on its usual Friday night time slot. Sergio Martinez promoted Spaniard Jon Fernandez has shown excellent power on ShoBox before. Here he gets his first main event and I like the opponent. O’Shaquie Foster is only 1-2 on the series, but he’s coming off a nice win on a King’s Promotion card over Frank De Alba. More importantly, he represents a movement based style that more flat footed power punchers can struggle with. He probably embodies the style on a low enough level that Fernandez can deal with, but to the scouting eye there will be a lot to be learned here. That’s the entire mission of ShoBox. In the co-main event, the former middleweight champion turned promoter also brings over Carlos Ramos to meet Massachusett’s Irving Gonzalez in a matchup of young unbeatens while the opening two fights put similarly young undefeated fights together as well. This is vintage ShoBox matchmaking to look forward to.
Saturday, September 22nd
Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) v Alexander Povetkin (34-1, 24 KOs), WBA, IBF, WBO heavyweight titles & Luke Campbell (18-2, 15 KOs) v Yvan Mendy (40-4-1, 19 KOs), lightweights & Matty Askin (23-3-1, 15 KOs) v Lawrence Okolie (9-0, 7 KOs), cruiserweights & Sergey Kuzmin (12-0, 9 KOs) v David Price (22-5, 18 KOs), heavyweights – London, England – Sky Box Office (UK), DAZN (US), 1 PM Eastern
DAZN’s (pronounced Da Zone because… I don’t know) American streaming debut opens with a bang this weekend. Mega heavyweight star Anthony Joshua might not be in with Deontay Wilder like everyone but he and Eddie Hearn want him to be, but longtime top heavyweight Alexander Povetkin is definitely a worthy challenger. Povetkin is good enough that we can’t completely sleep on him, but I don’t think he’ll be much of an issue fighting clean at 38 years old for the British star. I’ll have a full preview for the fight later in the week. Luke Campbell looks for revenge on Yvan Mendy in the co-main event while hot prospect Lawrence Okolie looks for an important regional title in the middle of the broadcast. Opening the show is a nice step up for Russian heavyweight prospect Sergey Kuzmin against highly flawed but powerful former prospect David Price. This is a good show. DAZN will be priced at $9.99 a month. With Eddie Hearn at Matchroom owing the service 32 dates a year and the World Boxing Super Series Season 2 providing 15 more, its well worth it to me at least. Your mileage may vary, of course. Even if you’re not into the idea of another monthly fee, you can actually watch this one for free anyway. Sign ups start with a 30 day free trial. Just remember to cancel after if you’re only in it for this fight. Its business as usual in the UK with Sky Box Office carrying the show as a PPV.
