Like Canelo Alvarez, Oscar De La Hoya is celebrating the DAZN deal
With Canelo Alvarez secured by his $365-million deal with the streaming service DAZN and the fighter’s newly extended five-year promotional contract, Oscar De La Hoya is turning his attention to fortifying his Golden Boy Promotions stable.
As Mexico’s Alvarez collected his Ring Magazine belt as lineal middleweight champion Thursday night at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, De La Hoya spoke about what the new association means to his company.
Golden Boy has been diminished this year by the title-fight losses of now-retired welterweight Lucas Matthysse and former lightweight champion Jorge Linares. Featherweight Joseph Diaz Jr. was also defeated in his championship bout.
By aligning with DAZN (pronounced “Da-Zone”), Golden Boy struck an alliance with an eager-to-spend entity seeking to place fights on every weekend, with existing deals in place with English promoter Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom USA and Bellator MMA.
DAZN executive John Skipper, the former head of ESPN, called the union “a winning transaction for Golden Boy,” and De La Hoya elaborated, “the beauty is that not only does Canelo have a lucrative contract, Golden Boy does, as well.
“We can go and sign the best fighters out there who are free agents. … We’re moving forward to put on the best fights, championship fights every month for the fans. … It’s a very lucrative number for Golden Boy,” De La Hoya said. “We’re happy.”
De La Hoya said his partnership with DAZN requires the disclosure of how subscriptions increase following the signing of Alvarez, who will seek the World Boxing Assn.’s secondary super-middleweight belt Dec. 15 on DAZN against England’s Rocky Fielding at Madison Square Garden, and after all other Golden Boy bouts.
De La Hoya said he’s excited to see how those figures escalate based on the fact that Alvarez will now be fighting on a platform that will charge a $9.99 monthly subscription fee.
“The beauty of this whole deal is that fans no longer have to fork over $80 to $100 for a fight. Those days are over. … I don’t have to be a numbers guy to know that’s one of the best deals for boxing,” De La Hoya said.
“We strongly feel we’ll surpass the 550,000 to 700,000 [subscriptions] in [Alvarez’s] first fight alone. If over one million watched Canelo for $90, imagine how many people will watch him for $9.99 [a month].”
Alvarez, positioned to collect more than the average of $33 million per fight as DAZN subscriptions increase from his bouts, echoed that he was most convinced to join DAZN following the end of his HBO contract because “my fans can see my fights at a lower price.”
After fighting Fielding, Alvarez will be free next year to keep his Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day fight-card weekends against the likes of the Oct. 27 Daniel Jacobs-Sergiy Derevyanchenko winner, Golden Boy stablemate David Lemieux or others.
Hearn increased the pressure on Showtime-linked Premier Boxing Champions unbeaten middleweight Jermall Charlo by saying that Charlo could only gain a belt by fighting on DAZN.
As for former champion Gennady Golovkin, who is considering a 2019 date on ESPN against secondary WBA champion Ryoto Murata in Japan if Murata wins Saturday, De La Hoya said: “If [Golovkin] signs with ESPN and Bob Arum, he’s going to fight Murata … and then what?”
Twitter: @latimespugmire
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
