Shakur Stevenson vs. Joe Cordina will reportedly headline now DAZN PPV‘s undercard event on October 12 in the Riyadh season event at the Kingdom Arena. The main event between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol will be on ESPN+.
Beterbiev-Bivol on ESPN+
Brunch Box reports that the Beterbiev-Bivol fight will be shown on ESPN+, which makes sense since Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) is with Top Rank, which has an exclusive deal with ESPN. It sounds like a mess splitting the card, as the biggest interest from fans is the Beterbiev vs. Bivol fight, not Shakur’s bout against former IBF super featherweight champion Cordina, who faces an eighth-round knockout loss to Anthony Cacace on May 18.
It’s going to be a tough sell for DAZN to have WBC lightweight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) in the main event, defending against British fighter Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs), as neither of the fighters are tied in the US Stevenson, 27, has never headlined a PPV card before. He has the wrong opponent for him to begin with.
The undercard for Stevenson vs. Cordina features mismatches and fights that won’t attract fans in the US. It is unclear what the PPV price will be for the Stevenson-Cordina card. Obviously, it has to be relatively low to sell because Shakur is not a fighter that fans would want to see.
Shakur was booed loudly in his last two fights against Artem Harutyunyan and Edwin De Los Santos. Fans were pouring out of the Prudential Center for Shakur’s fight against Harutyunyan in Newark, New Jersey. This is Shakur’s hometown.
On the plus side. Shakur can now brag to his followers that he is a PPV headliner and use that in future negotiations with fighters. Even if her fight with Cordina completely bombs DAZN PPVcould it be a new start for him to sell all his fights behind a paywall.
DAZN PPV card on October 12
Shakur Stevenson vs. Joe Cordina
Chris Eubank Jr vs Kamil Szeremeta
Fabio Wardley vs Frazer Clarke II
Jai Opetaia vs Jack Massey
Ben Whittaker vs Liam Cameron
Skye Nicolson vs Raven Chapman
Mohammed Alakel vs Jesus Gonzalez
Last updated on 26/08/2024
