Eddie Hearn weighed his two cents on rival [pseudo] promoter Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) who seem to be struggling maintaining a normal boxing schedule like other promotions. While every other promotional outfit has already planned out fights until at least the third quarter of this year, PBC officially only has one fight on its schedule; the March 30th fight between Tim Tszyu and Keith Thurman.
With recent rumors signifying that Mexican boxing superstar Canelo Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KO’s) is leaving PBC, the USA-based company appears to be in an unfortunate position following Showtime Sports’ dissolution in 2023, and Amazon Prime’s adherence to only funding PBC for pay-per-view (PPV) events.
During a recent interview with boxing media outlet ESNEWS, Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn dove into Amazon Prime’s lack of funding for PBC’s regular non-PPV boxing events for the current year.
“They don’t have a broadcaster that is paying them money to service their fighters,” Eddie Hearn explained.
“DAZN has the biggest budget in boxing. DAZN pay a lot of money to promoters to service their fighters and keep them active. PBC do not have a broadcaster that pay rights fees for a consistent schedule. They [PBC] have a broadcaster where they got a couple of pay-per-views [that] they have to take a risk on with no guarantees.
“They have no plan, they have no schedule, they have no regular content outside of pay-per-views that, quite frankly, aren’t really pay-per-views. And you can not run a business, you can not fill a schedule, you can not maintain and service your fighters if you do not have a broadcaster that is paying rights fees for regular Saturday fight nights.“
To summarize, Eddie Hearn criticized PBC’s partnership with Amazon Prime which was announced last December. As PBC’s own public announcement details, Amazon Prime would only be funding PBC for pay-per-views which prevents PBC from scheduling regular non-PPV events.
The inability by PBC to produce non-PPV events is a significant development as Amazon Prime is home to millions of subscribers that PBC is unable to capitalize on. Furthermore, the current model by Amazon Prime to only provide funding for PPV events prevents PBC fighters from being more active, thus affecting their livelihood as their earnings are dependent on when they fight.
As PPV events are much sparser than non-PPV’s given the pay-per-view model applies a model that requires subscribers to pay an extra fee to be able to witness those events, most PBC fighters will be forced to remain on the sidelines while hoping to appear on the next PPV event; which only results in their careers stagnating.
Additionally, with there being no broadcasting rights fees available to pay PBC fighters as there are no non-PPV events, fighters will be struggling to negotiate the right fees depending on their positioning on a PPV fight card; with main- and co-eventers usually earning a large bulk of the PPV earnings. Further complicating matters is the potential success of these PPV events, which will then determine how much each fighter on the card will be paid.
With PBC’s only announced show on March 30th headlined by Australian WBO champion Tim Tszyu (24-0, 17 KO’s) fighting former welterweight unified champion Keith Thurman (30-1, 22 KO’s)―who hasn’t fought in roughly two years, there are further risks that the upcoming PPV event may not yield that much success. Though Thurman is a recognizable name in America, his absence from the ring will have affected his popularity, and Thurman’s flamboyant showmanship might not be enough to help PBC retain the profits they need to maintain or continue their business.
Then there is the matter of the main event between the two fighters being a clear mismatch due to Thurman’s inactivity as opposed to Tszyu’s prominent activity in the sport, with Thurman’s moving up to super welterweight―after approximately ten years of not fighting in the division―also affecting his odds of winning. With Tszyu widely expected to win [easily], interest in the event is sure to be less prevalent as pay-per-view events usually require the main- and co-main events to feature competitive fights in order to draw customers.
In essence, this means that PBC can only make profit through pay-per-views which will be difficult if the pay-per-view events do not feature recognizable names going up against worthy competition. The lack of non-PPV events also prevents PBC from gaining a regular income to stage further fights, thus it appears the partnership between PBC and Amazon Prime is unstable at best and bound not to pay off in the long run if these PPV’s do not turn out to be profitable.
And if the rumors of Canelo Alvarez leaving PBC are found to be true, PBC will left with only one real recognizable fighter left in their stable in Gervonta Davis (27-0, 24 KO’s) who must face top competition in order to draw the viewers and seats for PBC to remain profitable. With Davis thus far having not fought a legitimate world champion from his own division or any reputable high-ranked contenders, PBC’s tenure in boxing might be genuinely coming to a close if they do not produce the PPV events needed for them to stay afloat.
And with PBC’s known tendency to focus primarily on in-house fights [fights between PBC fighters], an exodus might occur with PBC fighters forced to fight less, and limited to fighting boxers from their own stable which can affect their ratings by the sanctioning bodies, the amount of times they fight which will also impact their livelihood and ability to increase their popularity within the sport.
