MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV - Bob Arum is very pleased with the early returns on the recent addition of Tyson Fury to his stable. Arum worked out a multi-fight co-promotional deal with Frank Warren to bring the loquacious heavyweight to America.
The first fight as part of the deal took place on June 15th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and Fury demolished an over matched Tom Schwarz in 2 rounds.
On Saturday he will take on unbeaten Otto Wallin of Sweden at T-Mobile Arena. Like Fury's last fight in America, the Wallin bout will stream live on the ESPN+ App.
According to Arum, Fury's first foray on ESPN+ drew more subscribers than any other boxer that fights on a streaming service outside of Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez.
"Well he did an enormous number of subscriptions for ESPN+ in his first fight. Other than Canelo on DAZN, he has done more subscriptions on ESPN+ than all of the other cards that DAZN has had here in the United States," Arum told BoxingScene.com.
"That says something so he is like a franchise and now having him fight on Mexican Independence weekend with a heavy Mexican undercard - we are going to attract a lot of Mexican American subscribers and that is really what we are trying to do and build up a tremendous fan base for Tyson Fury and you cannot do that without appealing to the Mexican audience. By Mexican audience I mean Mexican Americans who live in the United States."
The undercard is filled with Mexican fighters such as WBO super bantamweight champion Emanuel Navarette, former champion Carlos Cuadras and former title challenger Jose Zepeda. Arum believes that this will help Fury broaden his fan base.
"I think that the undercard is going to have a great appeal to the Mexican audience and while that is happening I think that Tyson Fury will pick up a vast number of Mexican American fans," Arum explained.
Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter