On Thursday, ESPN announced that a new all-access feature spotlighting next weekend’s Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou fight would air across its platforms.
Road to Riyadh: Fury vs. Ngannou will premiere at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPNEWS on Saturday, October 21. It will re-air on Sunday (ESPN2, 2:30 a.m.), Monday (ESPN2, 11:30 p.m.), Tuesday (ESPN2, 3 a.m.), Thursday (ESPN2, 12 a.m. and ESPNEWS, 5:30 a.m.), and Friday (ESPN2, 6:30 a.m.). The feature will be available on-demand on the ESPN app, ESPN.com, and ESPN+, which is a sensible move given some of those start times.
The fight itself takes place on Saturday, October 28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the event beginning at 2 p.m. ET. It will be available via Top Rank on ESPN+ PPV along with cable and satellite pay-per-view providers and costs $79.99.
Next week, I’d fully expect to see Fury and Ngannou make appearances across ESPN programming to hype up the fight. Fury already showed up on First Take to promote the fight in September, so he’s clearly no stranger to the company’s programming.
While no hype tour has been announced yet, it simply makes sense, especially with no UFC event taking place next weekend. The $80 price point for the fight and the start time (in the middle of the afternoon on the East Coast during a college football Saturday) might scare off some potential buyers, but the hype level for this fight is staggering.
[ESPN]
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.