Is ‘RING Pass’ The Final Straw For Boxing’s Frustrating PPV Model?

The topic of pay-per-view (PPV) in boxing continues to drive debates and podcasts across social media. Why you ask? The economy here in the U.S. continues to raise prices on everything, but wages remain the same, making things like consuming sports less of a priority. With this upcoming “RING Pass” to DAZN subscriptions to replace purchasing individual PPV events, boxing just keeps delivering the hits to people’s wallets while delivering less in actual value.

Boxing and its obsession with making mid-level fights into a PPV event will host this weekend’s heavyweight battle between Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley. Why is this a PPV fight? Yes, Parker is a recognizable name in boxing, but he is fighting Wardley, who is a prospect, at best, a borderline contender, and the undercard is filled with a ton of names that the average fight fan wouldn’t recognize. PPV is supposed to be for premium matchups, and although Parker-Wardley is intriguing, it’s a fight that belongs as part of the DAZN subscription and not PPV.

Now there is this new RING Pass that will be an option as a monthly add-on if you don’t want to keep purchasing PPV events individually on DAZN. It is supposed to debut in November, and according to a DAZN rep, an announcement will be made after Parker-Wardley fight week.

 In July, the Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority for Saudi Arabia, Turki Alalshikh, announced that the PPV model was broken and would be free for DAZN subscribers.

Alalshikh posted the following on his X account: “Great meeting with my brother Shay, CEO of DAZN. We have big vision to grow boxing and decide: No More Pay-Per-View. Starting with our @ringmagazine show in November, all Riyadh Season & The Ring events will be free to DAZN subscribers. The PPV model has damaged boxing, and we will no longer support it. We are with the fight fans.” That statement quickly turned into DAZN issuing a statement shortly after Alalshikh’s post, introducing the RING Pass.

The only question remaining is how much this RING Pass costs boxing fans? The current price for a DAZN subscription is $29.99 a month ($359.88 annually) for the “Monthly Flex” plan; an “Annual Plan” that you pay monthly at $19.99 ($239.88 a year); and finally, the “Annual Upfront” subscription that costs $224.99 a year. Looking at those plans, it’s hard to imagine that the RING Pass will cost any more than an additional $9.99 a month at most. There shouldn’t be a need to do this at all, but if they must, ideally, this RING Pass should be between $2.99 and $5.99 a month in addition to your subscription to make it tolerable. Anything more than that would defeat the purpose of anything Alalshikh said over the last 18 months about the PPV model being broken.

This isn’t just on DAZN; PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) is also guilty of putting all its events on PPV, whether they merit such a platform or not. The only issue is that the PPV costs can’t all be the same. Some PPVs should be worth more or less than others. Every PPV they’ve put on in recent years has been at least $69.99, contributing to the consistent decline in PPV. I understand fighters have to get paid, but pricing fights appropriately would at least give the perception that the fans are being taken into consideration. For example, this upcoming PPV is headlined by Lamont Roach vs. Isaac Cruz. That’s a really good fight, but fans would agree that it isn’t a PPV one. If you are making it a PPV, why not price it at $49.99? That would be a reasonable price point for an event of that level.

At the end of the day, you, the consumer, have to decide whether an event is worth your hard-earned money or not. During a time when the country is in the middle of a government shutdown and people are prioritizing what they should spend their money on, especially with the upcoming holiday season, it isn’t the time to continually raise the price to watch boxing or maintain a PPV price point established years ago. That paywall reset needs to happen sooner rather than later.

Abraham Gonzalez

Abraham Gonzalez is the founder of FightsATW. His journalistic work has been published and used across several platforms to include online, network TV and promotional companies. He is an American Public University alumnus and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). Abraham was the Managing Editor for NYFights, Big Fight Weekend, contributed to FanSidedMMA and ProBoxTV.

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