Johnny Nelson has weighed in on Anthony Joshua’s choice to switch broadcast partners from Sky Sports to DAZN – and admitted AJ’s call was a ‘no-brainer’ by using a comparison with ex-Premier League player Carlton Palmer.
Joshua chose streaming platform DAZN over Sky – which had been broadcasting his fights since the start of his professional career – after he was made an offer ‘he could not refuse’. Joshua’s deal with DAZN is a multi-year, multi-fight deal with the requirement of two fights a year. The contract with DAZN is reportedly a 9-figure US dollar deal, with upside, putting his earning potential over the next three to five years into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Now in an interview with Boxing Social, Sky Sports pundit Nelson has admitted he is ‘heartbroken’ by AJ’s decision but understands his reasons for the mega-money move. When asked how much losing Joshua will affect Sky, Nelson responded: “How does it affect them? I think it’s probably more of a broken heart than anything else but business-wise, it’s business, that’s just business that’s just how it is.
“We on the boxing scene, yeah we’re gutted but that’s how it is, that’s life we’re still going to watch it, we just don’t have to work that night, we can have a drink and have some fun. In the grand scheme of things, what difference does it make? He’s still going to fight; we’re still going to watch him.”
“And Carlton was cool man, man was bunning on his cigar and I said to the guy ‘hold on, stop, what do you do for a living?’ And he said, ‘I work at Fletcher’s bakery’ and I said what if ‘the bakery across the road from Fletchers pay you twice as much as what you’re getting paid to go and work for them, but you’ve got to leave your friends, would you go?’ ‘Well yeah,’ I said ‘so what’s the difference?’ This is business that’s just how it is.”
Joshua is set to rematch Oleksandr Usyk in his next fight on August 20. AJ will be looking to reclaim his WBA ‘super’, WBO, and IBF heavyweight titles after dropping them to the Ukrainian in September. The pair will face each other at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia with the fight expected to be broadcasted live on DAZN PPV.