DAZN announces 2020 expansion- confirms Canelo date

The number one streaming service for boxing in the United States has announced on Monday that they are expanding, and simultaneously, they have also confirmed the next fight for multi division World Champion, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

In a statement on their website and social media released Monday, DAZN announced that its streaming service will expand from the nine countries that it’s currently in, to 200 countries before the end of this year:

We've got some BIG news… ? #DAZNGlobal

To find out more information, follow the link below.https://t.co/4bfztb8iac pic.twitter.com/d7ljvtFEbw

— DAZN (@daznglobal) March 2, 2020

The streaming service’s chief executive is former ESPN head, John Skipper, and he had this to say Monday about the expansion,

“Beginning this spring, most of the world will have access to DAZN and its unmatched schedule of boxing events,” said Skipper. “Our roster of championship fighters represents some of the world’s most popular athletes and we’ll be working with them to stage spectacular international events for years to come.” 

When DAZN launched in 2016, it did so with some fanfare mainly due to the signing of Canelo to an astounding 11 fight, $365 million contract. Alvarez has now fought three times under the DAZN umbrella, while being promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions.

They further announced Monday, what has been widely reported and expected, that Canelo’s next fight will be on Saturday night May 2nd against an opponent to be determined. And although DAZN didn’t confirm it Monday, the fight will likely be held in Las Vegas where Alvarez has fought several previous times on the Mexican holiday weekend “Cinco de Mayo.”

Alvarez’s most recent fight was in Las Vegas, when he defeated WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey kovalev by 11 round TKO last November.

It is believed the Canelo will fight one of the English super middleweight champions, Callum Smith or Billy Joe Saunders on that May 2nd date. However, with a timeline now within 60 days, neither of them has officially agreed, as of yet.

De La Hoya had previously said in late January that he was ready to move on from Smith and Saunders, if they did not say yes soon, if not immediately.

Mike Coppinger, boxing Insider for the Athletic, tweeted last Friday that Saunders has a huge offer from Canelo to accept the fight:

Sources: Golden Boy Promotions has increased its offer to Billy Joe Saunders to $7.75 million for a Canelo Alvarez fight on May 2 and a deal is nearing completion, but no agreement on money yet

— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) February 28, 2020

However, that amount was quickly disputed by Saunders promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing. Though, Hearn did not elaborate:

Normally your sources are spot on – not this time but I will see you at the weigh in!

— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) February 28, 2020

DAZN also has a deal with former Undisputed Middleweight Champ, Gennady Golovkin and his “GGG Promotions. Golovkin is expected to defend his IBF portion of the 160 lb. title later this spring on the service.

DAZN also deal is also with Matchroom  and they televised the Andy Ruiz Heavyweight Title TKO upset of Anthony Joshua last June at Madison Square Garden. Then, they had the Joshua-Ruiz rematch with Joshua regaining the titles with a 12-round decision in Saudi Arabia last December.

DAZN is subscription-based and they do not release their number of subscribers from month to month. However, it is believed that at times they have had in excess of half a million subscribers for some of their months with their biggest fights.

The obvious next step will be with the expansion and a massive deals that they have in place for the fights, is that the service will begin to charge more to its customers monthly to help off-set the cost. The company announced that they will reveal more on pricing soon.

Stay tuned on that.