Bob Arum Doesn’t Want To Put Devin Haney Vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko On Pay-Per-View
Haney and Lomachenko recently began negotiations.
If Devin Haney and Vasiliy Lomachenko are able to close in on a deal, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum doesn’t plan on making fans pay for it.
That’s what the veteran promoter said, according to Boxing Scene.
“Loma wants that fight next,” Arum said.
“Egis [Klimas, Lomachenko’s manager] wants the fight next. And Bill Haney wants to do that fight.”
“My hope is to do as few fights on pay-per-view as possible because I really believe that putting these fights on pay-per-view is not a wise thing to do. Now, other people might find difficulty in this. It’s not a wise thing to do because people aren’t buying the pay-per-views. And it costs a lot of money to do it. Even if the fighters don’t take guarantees, they hate you afterwards because they haven’t made money. I think that’s the problem Haymon is running into.”
Arum references PBC’s Al Haymon likely due to the fallout of the undisputed welterweight matchup between WBA, WBC and IBF champion Errol Spence Jr and WBO titleholder Terence Crawford.
Those negotiations dragged on for months before reports revealed that Crawford had been holding out because he wants full transparency of the expenses of the event since there is no guaranteed purse for the fight.
It ultimately fell through after news broke that Crawford was taking a stay-busy fight against David Avanesyan on December 10. It’s also now expected that Spence will face Keith Thurman in a WBC ordered fight.
Crawford and Spence said they still want to make the fight work out.
Arum’s comments also follow backlash from the price tag of the Professional Fighters League’s — a MMA promotion – first pay-per-view next Friday, November 25. The event will cost viewers $49.99. Many fans argued that they would not pay that price with some saying that they don’t even watch it when it’s free on ESPN+.
Pay-per-view has been an ongoing debate within the combat sports community.
As for Haney and Lomachenko, they reportedly began negotiations last week.