England’s Payne on PPV for Whyte fight – “feels little bit hasty”

The countdown has begun for Saturday night’s culmination of the “Fight Camp” series for Matchroom Boxing at their headquarters in England and the most anticipated bout of the series will take a risk on British pay-per-view TV.

This, as English number one WBC Heavyweight contender, Dillian Whyte, gets set to square off in a rescheduled 12-round battle with former IBF World Champ, Russian Alexander Povetkin.

For promoter Eddie Hearn and Matchroom they are also hoping to “cash in” on this card and charging 19.95 in British pounds for the pay-per-view broadcast on Sky Sports. This comes on the heels of Hearn and Sky having offered the previous three “Fight Camp” cards on regular cable in the U.K.

And, on our most recent edition of the Big Fight Weekend podcast, I covered this very subject with English boxing analyst and writer David Payne of boxing writer.co.uk.

And, David put it right out on the line that Hearn maybe making a large, overreaching mistake in the current coronavirus and economic climate of trying to get money this soon through a pay-per-view:

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“This weekend is just what the Heavyweights do: it just stirs the pot a little bit more….always ‘pique the interest’ a little bit more. Hopefully, there will be a little bit more of an audience, because I know the viewing figures have been particularly poor. 

But of course, he’s (Hearn) testing that interest and resolve by making it a Pay per view, which is probably a necessity to get these two guys the paychecks they want. But, it feels a little hasty, given the quality of what’s come before.”

Payne does make a good point that the fighters themselves are relying some off of the take of that Pay-per-view to get somewhere in the neighborhood of what their money would have been had this fight been able to be held with fans back in May, as it had been scheduled pre-pandemic.

As for the fighters and the bout itself, they met on a platform earlier today in an interview session with  Hearn asking the questions in advance of Saturday night’s battle. And, Whyte made clear that he knows any potential title shot with Tyson Fury that could be looming if he is victorious against Povetkin:

?️ "The story of my life is pressure! This is just another puzzle…" – @DillianWhyte #FightCamp #WhytePovetkin #FightCamp4

Watch live: https://t.co/7kpJvfV8Ys pic.twitter.com/65Zw2vMKCj

— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) August 20, 2020

“The story of my life has been pressure. I’ve been under pressure my whole life. He’s (Povetkin) just another puzzle- another thing that I have to deal with.”

Clearly, the younger Whyte has the advantage of fighting in his home country and against a forty-year-old Povetkin.

Whyte remains not only as the fan favorite in England/the U.K. but he is also the betting favorite with current Thursday odds listed at -350 according to sportsbettingdime.com, and that’s slightly down from where he opened at -375 to claim a crucial win Saturday night.

If you are interested in Povetkin’s Underdog odds, he’s currently sitting at +265. But, that feels more like a “sucker bet” due to him being 40 years old and being only 1-1-1 in his last three outings.

But, in addition to the betting public, now it will be interesting to see if not just hardcore fight fans, but the ‘casual sports fan,” primarily in the U.K. along maybe some watching on the DAZN streaming service in the United States will gravitate to this one, as well.