After years of broadcasting on BT Sport and ESPN+ Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions announced that DAZN will serve as its “exclusive global broadcast partner” starting in April of next year.
If I had a nickel for every DAZN promotion who hated Eddie Hearn’s guts, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice.
The good news is that, if everyone plays nice, this opens the door to a lot of matchups that broadcast disputes could have otherwise sunk. Warren and Hearn have shown a greater willingness of late to engage in proxy wars, from the 5v5 to the recent clash of prospects between Matchroom’s Shabaz Masoud and Queensberry’s Liam Davies.
The bad news is that DAZN sucks and isn’t showing any signs of improving. Additional shows (“a guaranteed 150 fights per year”) would make its inflated price tag an easier sell, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to make me shell out for the honor of listening to David Diamante. I live in Washington; why would I pay the yearly cost when I could fill my gas tank, like, three times with that kind of money?
Frank Warren: “I could not be more pleased that Queensberry is joining DAZN. This is a brilliant move for our fighters and, most importantly, for the fans. Their ambition and passion for the sport of boxing aligns perfectly with that of our own and we now look forward to putting on the biggest nights possible together.”