Usyk vs Dubois II: DAZN's head of boxing Chris Glanville talks helicopters, a ringwalk spectacular and directing the action By Heather McLean Friday, July 18, 2025 - 10:04
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Wembley Stadium will host an undisputed heavyweight boxing title fight for the first time this Saturday (19 July) when Daniel Dubois faces off with Oleksandr Usyk in their much-anticipated re-match.
As the host broadcaster of the event, DAZN is bringing out the big guns for the TV coverage.
At this Queensbury Promotions event, from Frank Warren, the production will be supported by DAZN's OB supplier for Queensberry Promotions, Gravity Media, with Chris Glanville, DAZN's head of boxing, USA and the rest of the world, directing the action.
SVG Europe caught up with Glanville to find out what to expect on the night and learn how the broadcaster is upscaling for what is set to be a truly epic event.
Bringing in the A-team
DAZN does weekly live boxing productions in the UK and the US, as it works with Matchroom Boxing, Golden Boy Promotions, Queensbury Promotions, and Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), founded by boxer Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian in 2021.
We consistently do boxing, but every now and again you get the big one, and this is the big one. You have to upscale, Glanville tells SVG Europe, speaking from LA after an Open Workout broadcast for The Ring magazine.
We do a standard boxing production, but when doing something like Wembley and with the likes of Usyk and Dubois who are obviously major names in boxing you have to upscale. So it is a matter of throwing, as they say, the kitchen sink at it and turning what is a big event into a massive event, and we have to do that in the production.
So what do we do? he continues. We add more talent. We bring in our A-team, our pay-per-view talent, and we bring in additional specialist cameras. So spidercams, helicopters, things that will elevate a broadcast beyond a standard production to emphasise what is a huge global boxing event.
Read more Usyk vs Dubois II: Bringing the fight of the century to life with state of the art cameras and graphics from DAZN and Gravity Media
On a standard boxing match, Glanville says DAZN uses anything between eight and 12 cameras, which is enough to show off boxing in a smaller venue . For this weekend's fight, that figure goes up to 21.
For a regular upscale boxing production DAZN would use drones or stock footage from drones to show the location, whether that be a stadium, theatre or town hall. However for Usyk vs Dubios, drones are out and a helicopter is in. The helicopter will be used early on in the night to capture the walkouts for the main event, as well as the fireworks that will light up the stadium.
Glanville explains: For this fight, you upscale. We are using a helicopter for this one because we want to show off Wembley and we want to show off the show that is not just within Wembley, not just within the bowl, but actually outside of that. What that means is fireworks and pyros and whatnot.
Glanville adds: We've never used a helicopter on boxing before.
DAZN was host broadcaster for the Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois fight at Wembley Stadium on 21 September 2024
Ringwalk spectacle
A lot more cameras are being employed to capture everything for the broadcast, from the changing rooms to the ringwalk, to the location, and then the actual fight.
We'll have cameras in every changing room for the main event, so we can record and play back live shots from each of the fighters, he says. Now we wouldn't normally do that [with two cameras]. We do that maybe sometimes with one camera, but we have cameras in each of the locker rooms, so we don't miss a moment of them arriving, wrapping, warming up and leaving the changing rooms.
DAZN is working closely with a production company that is responsible for putting on the walkout show, which includes a choreographer to ensure the walkouts, music and lights all pull together to heighten the suspense prior to the fight.
It's just capturing really that spectacle, which is the walkout, says Glanville.
He adds that the walkout part of the evening has a lot of weight on it. The amount of calls we've been on about graphics and movement and music. The walkout itself for the main event, the route to the ring is not direct. There's a whole walkway being planned, which takes them around the stadium and then through the crowd into the arena. The walkout is as much a part of the boxing as the boxing itself.
On capturing the ringwalk, Glanville says: We are using more cameras to cover the boxing, and to cover the walkouts. Walkouts obviously has become a massive part of boxing; it's not just about the fighting, it's about how they get to that ring and you have that as it's a show in itself. So we've got to show that off and to do that we have DSLR cameras Batcam Hold which is a specialist camera with a specialist lens that blows out the background. You open the aperture, it knocks the background out, and makes things look very, very pretty.
As well as the DSLR camera for the walkouts, DAZN is employing a spidercam, which is being set up to run the length of the stadium. He says: That gives us a 360 degree view of stadium and everything in it. We then are using a helicopter. We're using jibs. Now you would normally get jibs, but that would be your big camera, but that is complimented by everything around it.
DAZN produced the Chris Eubank Jr. vs Conor Benn fight at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, 26 April 2025
Onsite presence
DAZN is working onsite for the fight. In the studio at Wembley will be Lennox Lewis, who will be part of the commentary team with Joseph Parker, led by Kate Abdo and Ade Oladipo.
Comments Glanville: We've got a studio there, which is quite big for us
