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Some call it “funny money.” Others refer to it as “lunacy.” Whatever you want to call the towering sums of cash that gung-ho sports streaming service DAZN has been paying its fighters and their opponents over the past year, rest assured, there won’t be much of that any longer.
“The days of inflated purses are over at DAZN,” Joe Markowski, executive vice president of DAZN, told the Athletic’s Mike Coppinger on Wednesday.
September marks the one-year anniversary for DAZN’s stateside operations. During that time, it has become the broadcasting home for stars such as Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin and Anthony Joshua, among others, wooing them with mind-boggling purses. DAZN is backed by billionaire Len Blavatnik.
Speaking with Boxing Junkie over the phone on Friday, Markowski expanded on his comment, stressing that DAZN’s initial strategy in the U.S. was necessary because it was “starting from scratch in one of the most competitive sports media markets in the world.”
“Like many new entrants to many industries, our tactics (in boxing) were to … play the role of more than a traditional broadcaster in making a fight (and that was by) paying opponents more than their market value. Not anymore,” Markowski said.
Last fall, DAZN turned heads when it signed Alvarez to a $365 million, five-year contract. But the deals – some in the high six-figure and low seven-figures – that it has handed out to fighters of far lesser stature were in many ways far more surprising. Two examples are Philadelphia-based Tevin Farmer, a 130-pound titleholder, and Kyrgyzstan’s Dmitry Bivol, a titleholder at light heavyweight, neither of whom commands much commercial appeal or has been in meaningful, competitive fights on DAZN.
“(Our early spending) may well have been a tough pill to swallow to some (competitors), but how we entered the market was the best thing for our business,” Markowski said. “We won’t apologize for our tactics.”
Markowski made it clear that fighters with limited profiles – that is, those who do not stand to boost the overall subscribership for DAZN – will not be able to demand exorbitant purses at the negotiating table, as some of their peers in the past have. In other words, boxing managers, take heed.
“If you’re a guy and you don’t move the needle and you demand X amount of money, we’re going to tell you no thanks,” Markowski stated. “We’re not a money tree that needs to be plucked out by their fighters and their representatives. That message is one that needs to land.”
It is a sign that negotiations have perhaps become needlessly difficult for DAZN. It was reported that one reason making Canelo-Kovalev was so difficult was that Kovalev’s representatives wanted DAZN to match what Daniel Jacobs made against Alvarez in May, a reported $12.5 million.
That can be a tough benchmark to consistently meet for B-side opponents.
At the same time, Markowski said that DAZN’s commitment to paying top fighters with commercial appeal well would not change. Nor would its relationship with their existing promotional partners, including Matchroom and Golden Boy.
“We have a clear rights agreement with a number of promoters,” he said. “They make fights happen using that budget. … What we’re not going to do later is – based on the fact that we’re an established broadcaster in the U.S. – we don’t feel like we need to top up above and beyond that.”
“Feel” is the operative word. Markowski believes DAZN has a credible foundation – a roster of elite fighters and a “highly engaged subscriber base” – on which it can continue to go about its business, just with a greater sense of normalcy.
“We know what we are doing in boxing,” Markowski said. “We know what we should be investing in in our business. Already there are positive green shoots in our strategy.”
But will DAZN’s softened stance prove advantageous to their competitors?
“If we were worried about (our competitors), we wouldn’t be playing the game that we were playing,” Markowski said.
Markowski simply pointed to DAZN’s fall schedule, which he called “historic.” It begins on October 5 with a middleweight title fight between Golovkin and Sergiy Derevyanchenko, followed by the title-unification match between Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor, continues through November 2 with the light heavyweight clash between Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev, and concludes with the December 7 heavyweight rematch between Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua.
“The speed at which we’ve assembled the best schedule in boxing (is unparalleled),” he said.
Markowski also has fiercely rebutted any suggestions that his company’s new stance is a sign of loosening dedication to boxing, claiming that the streaming service plans to stage “35 to 40 ‘fight nights’ next year, all of which “will feature world championship fights.” But his main focus is to continue providing value for their subscribers by staging the fights that previously could not happen and helping the sport transition from its “one-time, transactional pay-per-view model.”
“What I’m really focused on,” Markowski said, “is within that roster of fights making sure that a good number of the fights are the major fights that fans are always frustrated can’t be made.”
“The days of inflated purses are over at DAZN,” Joe Markowski, executive vice president of DAZN, told the Athletic’s Mike Coppinger on Wednesday.
September marks the one-year anniversary for DAZN’s stateside operations. During that time, it has become the broadcasting home for stars such as Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin and Anthony Joshua, among others, wooing them with mind-boggling purses. DAZN is backed by billionaire Len Blavatnik.
Speaking with Boxing Junkie over the phone on Friday, Markowski expanded on his comment, stressing that DAZN’s initial strategy in the U.S. was necessary because it was “starting from scratch in one of the most competitive sports media markets in the world.”
“Like many new entrants to many industries, our tactics (in boxing) were to … play the role of more than a traditional broadcaster in making a fight (and that was by) paying opponents more than their market value. Not anymore,” Markowski said.
Last fall, DAZN turned heads when it signed Alvarez to a $365 million, five-year contract. But the deals – some in the high six-figure and low seven-figures – that it has handed out to fighters of far lesser stature were in many ways far more surprising. Two examples are Philadelphia-based Tevin Farmer, a 130-pound titleholder, and Kyrgyzstan’s Dmitry Bivol, a titleholder at light heavyweight, neither of whom commands much commercial appeal or has been in meaningful, competitive fights on DAZN.
“(Our early spending) may well have been a tough pill to swallow to some (competitors), but how we entered the market was the best thing for our business,” Markowski said. “We won’t apologize for our tactics.”
Markowski made it clear that fighters with limited profiles – that is, those who do not stand to boost the overall subscribership for DAZN – will not be able to demand exorbitant purses at the negotiating table, as some of their peers in the past have. In other words, boxing managers, take heed.
“If you’re a guy and you don’t move the needle and you demand X amount of money, we’re going to tell you no thanks,” Markowski stated. “We’re not a money tree that needs to be plucked out by their fighters and their representatives. That message is one that needs to land.”
It is a sign that negotiations have perhaps become needlessly difficult for DAZN. It was reported that one reason making Canelo-Kovalev was so difficult was that Kovalev’s representatives wanted DAZN to match what Daniel Jacobs made against Alvarez in May, a reported $12.5 million.
That can be a tough benchmark to consistently meet for B-side opponents.
At the same time, Markowski said that DAZN’s commitment to paying top fighters with commercial appeal well would not change. Nor would its relationship with their existing promotional partners, including Matchroom and Golden Boy.
“We have a clear rights agreement with a number of promoters,” he said. “They make fights happen using that budget. … What we’re not going to do later is – based on the fact that we’re an established broadcaster in the U.S. – we don’t feel like we need to top up above and beyond that.”
“Feel” is the operative word. Markowski believes DAZN has a credible foundation – a roster of elite fighters and a “highly engaged subscriber base” – on which it can continue to go about its business, just with a greater sense of normalcy.
“We know what we are doing in boxing,” Markowski said. “We know what we should be investing in in our business. Already there are positive green shoots in our strategy.”
But will DAZN’s softened stance prove advantageous to their competitors?
“If we were worried about (our competitors), we wouldn’t be playing the game that we were playing,” Markowski said.
Markowski simply pointed to DAZN’s fall schedule, which he called “historic.” It begins on October 5 with a middleweight title fight between Golovkin and Sergiy Derevyanchenko, followed by the title-unification match between Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor, continues through November 2 with the light heavyweight clash between Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev, and concludes with the December 7 heavyweight rematch between Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua.
“The speed at which we’ve assembled the best schedule in boxing (is unparalleled),” he said.
Markowski also has fiercely rebutted any suggestions that his company’s new stance is a sign of loosening dedication to boxing, claiming that the streaming service plans to stage “35 to 40 ‘fight nights’ next year, all of which “will feature world championship fights.” But his main focus is to continue providing value for their subscribers by staging the fights that previously could not happen and helping the sport transition from its “one-time, transactional pay-per-view model.”
“What I’m really focused on,” Markowski said, “is within that roster of fights making sure that a good number of the fights are the major fights that fans are always frustrated can’t be made.”
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