Usyk vs AJ 2 – No Promotion Needed?
The heavyweight division in boxing had a new king in September last year, as the Ukrainian ex-cruiserweight unified champion Oleksandr Usyk beat, and outclassed the two-time heavyweight champion of the world Anthony Joshua in his home country. It sent shockwaves through the division, as Usyk was not underestimated, but most people expected Joshua to get the job done.
As now is standard in the boxing world, the Brit had a rematch clause. And after all of the talking and delays, the pair are finally set to have their rematch almost a year after their initial bout. This is partially due to Usyk’s involvement in defending his home country of Ukraine from Russia earlier this year, which is as fair an excuse as you can have, to be honest.
The highly anticipated rematch is set to not take place in either of the fighter’s native countries. Many boxing purists have been critical that one of the biggest fights ever in the history of boxing is taking place halfway across the world, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It has been reported that Saudi Arabia has forked out around £65.4 million to host the event ahead of other competitors, which one can only speculate would be boxing havens such as Wembley Stadium, Madison Square Garden and more. However, the main event is scheduled for between a 10.30-11 pm start for fans in the UK, which is the same as other events that take place in the UK, so armchair fans will not notice as much of a difference.
However, they are certainly not strangers to world-class sporting events, as they also hosted Anthony Joshua’s rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, for which they had to pay less to host the event, so either the competition is getting fiercer for hosting these events over the globe, or the Joshua and Usyk names have more global pull than the former and Andy Ruiz Jr.
The Saudis are certainly determined to get their foot in the door with sport and invest plenty of their money as a way of generating income. They have thrown cash into golf, and their Public Investment Fund has a majority stake in Newcastle United, while that has raised some eyebrows surrounding the topic of sports washing, that is a conversation for another day.
It has been further speculated that Saudi Arabia will focus heavily on securing the rights for whomever the winner decides to fight next, which many have hoped would be Tyson Fury. The Lineal champion announced his retirement after knocking out Dillian Whyte in April this year, but having done it so many times, people have said that he was just stalling to see the result of Saturday’s fight to make his full decision. However, he has since vacated his Ring Magazine title, which is now also up for grabs as well as the other four belts which could signal his true intent; but some cynics still out there have pointed out how he still holds his WBC title and is still the lineal champion. I think I can speak for most boxing fans when I say a potential fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua (or even Usyk, but less so) is a mouth-watering spectacle that most do not want that event to pass them by.
Those who would certainly not want that event to not happen are the pair’s promoters, Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren who are legends of the boxing promotion industry. This fight would arguably be the biggest ever in the history of boxing, most definitely in the heavyweight division.
It does however seem that there has been a lack of promotion of this fight via social media. The usual professional coverage and build-up have still happened, with events such as weigh-ins, live workouts etc. but there has been pretty much radio silence from both camps in the lead-up to the event, minus the occasional Instagram post of the fighters training.
This could be due to a plethora of reasons. Sky Sports secured the rights to broadcast the event via PPV in the UK, as per usual in the last however many years that I can remember, at least. But in recent times, promoter Eddie Hearn has moved his company Matchroom Boxing from Sky to his new streaming service app, DAZN. As quoted on their website, fans can watch sport in every country, in any language, on any device, live and on-demand. This could lead to a lack of promotion as multiple outlets will be trying to promote the event, causing not as much traffic and social media noise to be created for the event. Plus, Sky Sports are busy trying to build up their own promotional company, BOXXER, which is focusing on building up the next generation of boxers to create a roster of PPV stars.
But if you compare this level of promotion to last week's blog topic, influencer boxing, there is a stark contrast between these professional fights and influencer boxing. This could be because the rematch on Saturday night, labelled the ‘Rage on the Red Sea’ essentially sells itself due to the sheer quality of abilities and skill levels on show, whereas the influencer events are less based on skill, but rather on the story sold of the event, so there is an air of a lack of professionalism around some of the stunts some people play when promoting influencer events.
The fight has a story that sells itself. Usyk fighting to stay as heavyweight champion, with his country's ongoing struggles still fresh in the back of his mind, and Joshua’s thirst to become a Three-time heavyweight champion of the world and set up a mouth-watering event with Tyson Fury. It sets up Saturday night to be one of the most exciting events of the year.
Who will prevail on Saturday?
