Promoters for heavyweight boxers Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko have come to terms to air the IBF heavyweight title fight on both Showtime and HBO. Showtime will air the live broadcast at 1:15pm PT and HBO will rebroadcast it in prime time at 7:45pm PT. The event takes place at Wembley Stadium in London.
Per Yahoo! Sports, each network will provide its own announcing crew for the show. Showtime has an exclusive deal with Joshua and Klitschko has a deal with HBO.
The negotiated deal between rival networks is a rarity. The last time the networks worked in conjunction with one another for a boxing event was the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. The business relationship broke down after the fight and resulted in a lawsuit.
Payout Perspective:
This is a rarity and its good news for boxing fans that have only HBO or Showtime. It also reflects the fact that there can be a working relationship between rival promoters and networks. This has been a bone of contention which was brought up in lawsuits by Top Rank and Golden Boy against Al Haymon’s PBC. This is evidence that it can happen. It will be interesting to see the ratings for each network. While Showtime gets the live airing, it is in the mid-afternoon on Saturday for the west coast while HBO does get a prime time replay albeit many might know the result.
Too much money involved in this one for them not to work together. Huge fight, and good to see its not PPV here in the USA. Good to see both networks working together to make this fight happen for U.S. fans. In terms of the fight, you have to go with Joshua but something tells me Wlad may tap that suspect chin of his. Both men can be hurt when hit.
It’s going to be a hell of a sight to see 90,000+ fans in Wembley going crazy! I miss living in the UK sometimes….oh well.
Klitschko top 5 Heavyweight of all time! Maybe even higher! Ivan Draggo is real.
huge fight for the sport. Like Wil said wembley is gonna be crazy. Can’t even deny the atmosphere the British fans bring to their fights.
Money money money hahaha
ill give joshua credit he is seeking out the best possible fight out there for him.
while deontay wilder is content to fight clowns and garbage men for easy 1 million dollar pay days