Duco Events CEO Martin Snedden said that the company is "backing Joseph Parker," according to Marvin France of STUFF. The ability of Duco to secure int'l broadcasting rights for Joseph Parker's heavyweight title fight against Andy Ruiz will "likely determine the pay-per-view cost for Kiwis to watch his shot at history." Despite a "lack of local and central government funding, Parker's promoters on Tuesday confirmed the WBO championship showdown would take place at Auckland's Vector Arena" on Dec. 10. With a total cost of about NZ$4M ($3M), the fight "will be the most expensive ever" in New Zealand. Snedden revealed at the announcement that general tickets would start from NZ$99 ($73), however, "the price of pay-per-view had yet to be confirmed." Reports over the weekend suggested it could be between NZ$70 ($52) and NZ$100 ($74), but Snedden "insisted the pay-per-view would not be finalised until directors David Higgins and Dean Lonergan completed the broadcast negotiations." Higgins is currently overseas looking for TV contracts, while co-Owner Dean Lonergan is "heading to Africa in an attempt to secure deals there." Duco has "predicted a possible global audience" reaching more than 100 million people across 100 countries, though Ruiz's promoter Bob Arum "will take the lucrative rights" to the U.S. and Mexico. Snedden said, "It won't be any trouble securing deals that get this fight shown all around the world, we just want to extract a reasonable amount of value out of each of those deals to help us meet that bottom line" (STUFF, 11/8).
