Boxing News at Five: UFC champ Miocic wants to fight Fury, and KSI vs. Paul was a hotter PPV than Joshua vs. Ruiz

Stipe Miocic

UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic is 1-1 with rival Daniel Cormier but suggests a boxing match against Tyson Fury is far more appealing to him at this point than settling the score with DC.

Reacting to Furyโ€™s mention of him in a recent interview, Miocic has expressed an interest in granting the former heavyweight championโ€™s wish and says he would even be happy to meet him in the boxing ring as opposed to the UFC Octagon.

โ€œTyson Fury is coming in the mix now, I hear. I like a new challenge,โ€ he told BJPenn.com. โ€œIโ€™d love to box him. Heโ€™s a great fighter. Heโ€™s a good dude, and I think weโ€™d put on a good show.

โ€œWith DC, I didnโ€™t fluke knock him out, I beat him. I decisively beat him. The first fight DC caught me with a punch in the first round. But [the] second fight I won. I didnโ€™t get lucky.

โ€œRight now, (a Cormier fight) doesnโ€™t really intrigue me. More with the Tyson Fury, I like that.โ€

Coming as it does weeks after Tyson Fury lit up the WWE with a cameo appearance, and days after KSI and Logan Paul turned the fight world on its head with a six-round headliner, talk of Miocic and Fury meeting for a fight should come as no surprise. We have, it seems, entered a new realm, an alternate reality in which business sense rules common sense and where anything goes.

tyson fury
Fury, The Greatest Showman (Action Images/REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Speaking of KSI and Logan Paul, Saturdayโ€™s (November 9) six-round main event at Staples Center, Los Angeles, may have irked the hardcore fraternity but it did, as expected, some healthy numbers on pay-per-view.

Or at least thatโ€™s the verdict from its promoter Eddie Hearn, who says, despite the backlash and sluggish ticket sales, KSI vs. Logan Paul II was a Box Office smash, by far and away the biggest success story for Sky Sports this calendar year.

โ€œThe first fight did 1.2m pay-per-view buys globally. This was much, much bigger this time around,โ€ Hearn told Sirius XMโ€™s Fight Nation.

โ€œItโ€™s the biggest pay-per-view in the UK of the year so far. That includes the first (Anthony) Joshua vs. (Andy) Ruiz Jr fight from America. This fight was cheaper, half the price of that.

โ€œI believe DAZN will announce some numbers this week, but I understand it was the most-viewed fight on DAZN so far. It was a big subscription-driver as well.

โ€œIt wasnโ€™t just those two key territories; it was all those other little territories. When we look at the breakdown on Fite TV, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Europe, Africa โ€“ it was everywhere.

โ€œYou donโ€™t realise the audience these guys have. They brought our sport to reach new ground and reach new territories, new demographics and new markets.โ€

Though the fight didnโ€™t start until five oโ€™clock in the morning, UK time, it would seem plenty of people stayed up or woke up to see KSI and Paul settle their score. Thatโ€™s good news for KSI and Logan Paul but means very little in terms of boxingโ€™s popularity going forward into 2020.

It suggests a third fight between the pair, their second as โ€˜prosโ€™, could be a lucrative avenue worth exploring, but does little for the future ticket sales or pay-per-view buys of Billy Joe Saunders and Devin Haney, who both appeared on the undercard.

Ultimately, when weighing up the pros and cons, we can say this much: it was a unanimous win for KSI and Logan Paul and YouTubers all around the world. It was their success story. Their breakthrough moment. Their party.

Boxing, on the other hand, was merely invited; used for its accommodation.

paul decks ksi
KSI and Paul provided sloppy technique but a fair bit of drama

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