Anthony Joshua and Alexander Povetkin will be fighting it out in the ring on Saturday, September 22. As Joshua will be defending his heavyweight title, you can expect this fight to not only be heavily anticipated but heavily watched as well. Thankfully, watching Joshua vs. Povetkin online is going to be extremely easy this year thanks to some new additions to the streaming world.
Below, we’ll explore all of your viable options to watch Joshua and Povetkin duke it out in the ring later this month.
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A Cord-Cutting Service Will Be Required to Watch Joshua vs. Povetkin
For one of the first times ever, US fight fans will have the option to watch a heavyweight title match for free – or at least, for less than $10 without a PPV pass.
That’s because the sports-streaming service DAZN, which just launched in the US, landed the rights to the Joshua vs. Povetkin fight. We’ll dive more into DAZN and what you can expect from it for the Joshua vs. Povetkin fight just below.
If you’re new to cord-cutting, DAZN and other services, such as Sling TV, Philo, and fuboTV, are what are known as “skinny bundle” internet TV streaming services.
These services offer both live and on-demand TV with few restrictions and most importantly, no extra equipment. They’re far cheaper than normal cable subscriptions, making them the go-to option for those who want to watch entertainment, sports, movies and more at a much lower cost.
Other options, such as Netflix, fall into the broader cord-cutting category, but do not provide users with live TV coverage. By combining just a few of these services, you can not only save money by switching away from traditional cable but get far more options for on-demand content than you ever had in the past.
DAZN US for Joshua vs. Povetkin
US fans will get to enjoy the Joshua vs. Povetkin fight from the comfort of their own home using the new DAZN US streaming service. The cost to watch is going to be far less than if it were offered over traditional Pay-Per-View, and indeed, there are no other legal options to watch the match in the US. It’s exclusive to DAZN.
What is DAZN?
DAZN, which is pronounced “da zone”, is a sports-streaming service born in the United Kingdom. Traditionally, DAZN has offered its users a variety of international sports.
For example, DAZN Canada offers customers NFL, NCAA College Football and Basketball, Cricket, Association Football, MLB, motorsports, and more. Many of those sporting events are unavailable to Canadians through other streaming services, making DAZN a valuable service to have for Canadian sports fans.
This is also the case for DAZN’s other regions, which include Germany, Japan, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. In all of those regions, DAZN focuses on a large number of hard-to-find international sports.
DAZN US is different, however. Because US sports fans have a wide range of streaming options already contracted to show both US and international sports, DAZN chose a different goal: to become the #1 choice for fight sports fans in the United States, who are traditionally underserved by both cable and internet TV services.
In the US, most fight sports are difficult to obtain and expensive to watch, and typically only shown through pricey Pay-Per-View options.
DAZN saw this as the perfect opportunity to provide low-cost fighting sports to US fans of combat sports, of which there are many. The company now promises to provide 70+ fights per year, many of which will be DAZN exclusives.
The first such exclusive fight to stream on the service will be the upcoming Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin heavyweight match.
How much does DAZN cost?
A DAZN subscription costs just $9.99 per month. DAZN also offers a very generous 1-month free trial. There’s no word on how long the 1-month free trial offer will last, particularly because the most common free-trial period for cord-cutting services is 7 days, but this is certainly a generous offer.
For perspective, when it first launched its service, YouTube TV was also available with a 1-month free trial. YouTube later revised that down to just 7 days. If you’re currently on the fence about signing up to DAZN and checking it out, right now is definitely the time to pull the trigger.
From our experience, we can expect two things to happen within a years’ time. First, it’s likely DAZN will decrease the length free trial period. Secondly, and more importantly, it’s quite likely that as DAZN picks up more streaming contracts and broadcast rights, they’ll also raise the price.
Almost every other streaming service we’ve covered, from Sling TV to DirecTV Now, has implemented a price hike once they started getting popular. And as we suspect DAZN will likely be a popular alternative for fighting sports fans, we expect a price hike sometime in the future as well.
Still, even if they hike the price minimally to account for more sports offerings, DAZN is ridiculously cheap compared to paying for Pay-Per-View matches.
Take the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady “GGG” 2 fight, for example. You can only view that rematch fight on Pay-Per-View, and it’ll cost you anywhere from around $74 if you have cable to $84 if you purchase streaming rights from FITE.tv.
The $10 per month for DAZN US, combined with the 70+ MMA and boxing matches they’ll offer each year, means you’ll save a lot of money versus the traditional PPV model common for fight sports.
DAZN US features
Once signed up for DAZN, you’ll notice that the service has a few additional features that you may be interested in.
The layout for the service is rather simple, but you can find anything you need using the sport-by-sport breakdown at the bottom. DAZN US primarily focuses on MMA and boxing, but it also carries a few other sports on-demand and live, including cycling, soccer, and cricket.
You can use the “Schedule” button at the top to locate what’s playing today, or upcoming on different dates. The calendar is not particularly well designed, however, as you need to scroll date by date. DAZN does not provide a calendar view.
Thankfully, you can filter by sport in the schedule view. Should you find an upcoming event that you want to remind yourself of, the mobile app version of DAZN has a “Reminders” feature that lets you save reminders for different events. You’ll get a push notification to your mobile device when the event is about to start.
The mobile app version of DAZN also has a “Data Saver” feature that lets you reduce the video quality in order to save data while streaming over 4G (or WiFi, if you have limited data usage at home).
Whether you’re on mobile or in the web browser version, you can also set subtitles to display for your streams, which is a welcome feature for those with disabilities or audio processing difficulties.
DAZN device support
Although DAZN is a new option for US sports fans, it’s been around since 2016 in a number of other countries.
As a result, the service has had time to increase its device support significantly. You can use DAZN on most web browsers for both Windows and macOS computers. There are also apps available for iOS and Android, as well as streaming devices like the Roku and Amazon Fire TV and TV Stick. You can even stream from dedicated apps for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Usefulness for cord-cutters
DAZN is going to be an excellent option for fighting sports fans in the future. For now, however, it’s also the only option US fans can use to watch the Joshua vs. Povetkin fight. And since you get the first month free, you can easily watch sign up to watch the fight and cancel later without any penalty. That said, you might find the upcoming events make DAZN worth keeping for the long run as well.
For more information on DAZN US, you can read our in-depth DAZN US review.
Are there DAZN alternatives for Joshua vs. Povetkin?
Unfortunately, no. At this time, DAZN has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin fight in the US.
That means that if you’re a US resident and you want to watch the fight, you’re going to need to tune in through DAZN. But since DAZN is currently offering a one-month free trial, you can easily get by watching without paying, if you so choose.
What About Other Countries, like Canada or the UK?
At present, the only option to watch the heavyweight fight and the entire fight card outside of the US is through Sky Sports Box Office in the UK.
Through Sky Sports Box Office, you’ll be able to book the fight for £19.95 ($29.95 USD). That’s, unfortunately, more expensive than US residents are going to pay through DAZN. Then again, most PPV matches for US residents are also far more expensive.
Additionally, sorry Canadian fans – there are currently no options for you to watch this fight, or anyone else beyond US or UK residents, for that matter.
Anthony vs. Povetkin Fight Card
You may be in it for the title match, but you can tune in starting at 1 PM EST to catch the undercard fights as well as the main event.
The entire fight card includes the following events:
- Shakhram Giyasov vs. Julio Laguna, 6 rounds (Welterweight)
- Sergey Kuzmin vs. TBA (Possibly David Price), 10 rounds (Heavyweight)
- Marty Askin vs. Lawrence Okolie (Cruiserweight)
- Luke Campbell vs. Yvan Mendy (Lightweight, Rematch)
- Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin (Heavyweight)
Each of these fights should be interesting to watch, especially if Kuzmin fights David Price. Price was defeated rather handily by Alexander Povetkin earlier this year, making his potential inclusion a bit of a sore spot for him, but an interesting storyline for fans nonetheless.
When the Fight Ends, What’s Next?
Once the Joshua vs. Povetkin fight is over, you can look forward to a large library of other fights upcoming and available through DAZN.
Some of the other must-see matches include:
- Sept. 21 – Bellator 205: McKee vs Macapa (simulcast with Paramount Network)
- Sept. 29 – Bellator 206: Rampage vs. Silva 4 & Mousasi vs. MacDonald
- Oct 6 – Jessie Vargas vs. Thomas Dulorme
- Oct. 12 – Bellator 207: Mitrione vs. Bader (simulcast with Paramount Network)
- Oct. 13 – Bellator 208: Fedor vs. Sonnen (simulcast with Paramount Network)
- Oct. 20 – Billy Joe Saunders vs. Demetrius Andrade
Beyond those options, DAZN is also increasing the number of live sports its streaming through the service across the other categories its offering. From the Schedule view, you can see some of the more minor events that are getting broadcast, including:
- Combate: Marroquin vs. Alday (September 14)
- J1 League: Tosu vs. Hiroshima (September 15)
- J1 League: Kawasaki vs. Sapporo (September 15)
- UCI Europe Tour: Classic Impanis-Van Petegem (September 15)
- AFC Championship League: Persepolis vs. Al Duhail (September 17)
- AFC Championship League: Al Sadd vs. Esteghlal (September 17)
You can find more events as well by scrolling day-by-day through the Schedule section on DAZN. As stated earlier, this is a somewhat tedious method to find schedule events, but it’s the only method that DAZN includes at present.
Philo, Bellator, and DAZN
As you’ll note from the list, some of these fights are also being simulcast through Paramount Network (formerly Spike TV). This is because Bellator has a simulcast deal with DAZN and Paramount Network to offer all of its fights on both platforms.
That means that if you’re only into Bellator fights, you can get many of them at a super low cost through an unlikely source: Philo.
Currently, Philo offers over 40 channels for just $16 per month, or $20 per month if you want closer to 50 channels.
By design, Philo does not provide any sports networks, which is why it’s able to offer those entertainment channels at such a low cost. However, there’s a catch. It does carry Paramount Network. The end result here is that Bellator fans can actually watch Bellator matches through Philo. Indeed, because of this, Bellator MMA is the only sport you’ll find on Philo.
With its low cost and lineup of channels, Philo may actually be a great pairing for anyone signing up to DAZN’s service. Should DAZN eventually add more sports options later, the Philo/DAZN pairing could be one of the best, lowest-cost streaming options for US TV viewers.
Philo comes with a 7-day free trial.
Sam Cook is a full-time content strategist by day, a part-time freelance content writer since 2015. In another life, he was a high school English teacher for nearly a decade. Based in sunny New Orleans, he writes long-form educational content on technology, including Insurtech, Fintech, HRtech, and content streaming. He loves whittling down complex ideas within these areas that make decisions easier for buyers. When he’s not reading books with his son Miles and playing video games with the family, you can find him immersed in his growing collection of Euro-style board games.
