Epix, the upstart premium cable channel, has picked an unlikely tactic in its fight for new subscribers: it has devoted some of its resources to heavyweight boxing. In a different era, this might have seemed an obvious strategy, but nowadays boxing occupies a rather obscure niche within American sports, and the heavyweight division poses particular challenges, because it is dominated by a pair of unflashy Ukrainian brothers, Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, both of whom have steadfastly refused to fight their most formidable potential opponents: each other.
In March, Epix broadcast a fight between Vitali Klitschko and a Cuban-born fighter named Odlanier Solís, which ended when Solís crumpled near the end of the first round, clutching his right knee. (Afterward, Solís’s promoter, Ahmet Öner, upheld boxing tradition by putting forward a hypothesis that was not strictly in accordance with empirical observation: “If his knee hadn’t given in, he would have won that fight.”)
Undiscouraged, Epix has acquired the rights to a non-Klitschko heavyweight fight: Alexander Povetkin, an undefeated Russian, and a client of the American trainer Teddy Atlas, versus Ruslan Chagaev, a top-ten contender who has already spent one unhappy evening with a Klitschko, two years ago. (It was Wladimir Klitschko, who pummelled Chagaev for nine rounds before everyone decided that the point had been made.) Epix planned to broadcast this fight on a big screen in Times Square at 5 P.M. on Saturday afternoon; in light of recent meteorology, that no longer seems like the most pleasant way to watch. Instead, homebound locals can find the fight online, by signing up for some sort of free preview. No doubt Epix, like the persistent few who still follow boxing, is hoping for an exciting fight, though not necessarily expecting one. (These days, the main virtue that boxing teaches its fans is patience.) And if Povetkin-Chagaev disappoints, and the electricity stays on, there is another option: UFC Rio, a mixed martial arts fight card, live from Brazil (partly cloudy, high 71) on pay-per-view at 9 P.M. Saturday night, with free under-card fights on Facebook (6 P.M.) and on Spike TV (8 P.M.).