Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois is going cheap so it won't be stolen

It’s an interesting idea in theory: reduce the price of an event in order to ensure people buy it rather than steal it, all in the hope that you, the promoter, end up making even more money as a result.

Though hardly an example of altruism, the decision of Turki Alalshikh to lower the pay-per-view price for Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois is nevertheless a decision both shrewd and welcome.

According to PPV.com, fans in the United States will be able to buy the Joshua vs. Dubois heavyweight fight, set to take place in London on September 21, for as little as $19.99. This, if compared to the $89.99 it will cost you to watch the September 14 fight between Canelo Alvarez and Edgar Berlanga, or the $69.99 it will cost to watch the UFC event on the same night, represents an almost radical move in this age of combat sports.

You mention the PPV, I think this is my next big fight,” Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, told talkSPORT’s Jordan and White show on Monday morning. “I dream of a PPV with a good price to make the fans happy and subscribe and get them to watch it legally.”

So long accustomed to being fleeced, or simply made to feel as though they should pay for everything, now boxing fans are suddenly being greeted with what appears, on the face of it, a bit of a bargain. It is a bargain motivated entirely by their growing propensity to seek alternative, illegal ways of watching overpriced products, sure, but still, at a time when prices are soaring, it is a bargain all the same. Rejoice in the fact. Imagine it will continue. Imagine lessons have been learned.

You may recall that before and after Oleksandr Usyk fought Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia there was much talk of records being broken and history being made. However, one record, which came to light only afterwards, would have irked Alalshikh and the other characters involved and may indeed have been the impetus for this latest shift in attitude.

The record, revealed in a report by the Daily Mail, had to do with the amount of people who had watched Usyk vs Fury fight their 12 rounds in the desert – illegally. At least 20 million people, so said this report, watched the fight via illegal streams, equating to 95 million euros in lost revenue for the various broadcasters. If that sounds a lot, it’s because it is.

The analysis, conducted by Yield Sec for Mail Sport, also claimed there was evidence of 2,000 streaming locations across the world with 18 per cent of those watching illegally – approximately four million people – in the UK, and 25 per cent (five million) of illegal streams located in North America. These figures, which count only the number of streams and not the number of people watching those streams, are among the highest recorded for a sporting event.