Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk: Free streams to watch fight spread online amid piracy warnings

Anthony Joshua takes on Oleksandr Usyk for the second time on Saturday night, hoping to reclaim the heavyweight titles he lost to the Ukrainian last year.

The Usyk vs Joshua 2 fight will be available for viewers in the UK on Sky Sports Box Office, costing £26.95, with the main event expected to begin at around 10.15pm BST on Saturday evening.

The high pay-per-view fee makes it one of the most lucrative sporting events of the year, however piracy experts warn that it will likely result in millions of boxing fans looking for illegal live streams to watch the fight for free.

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Illicit streams have become a common feature of major live events in recent years, and are easily found through search engines like Google and DuckDuckGo, as well as on popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.

Despite some streaming services only making money through a barrage of online ads, others seek to profit from the event’s popularity by scamming visitors to the sites.

Recent research from cyber security firm Opentext Security Solutions found that 90 per cent of 50 streaming sites analysed were classified as “risky”, with over 40 per cent not having the necessary security certificate.

“These illegal streaming sites are often run by criminal enterprises to gain users’ personal data and sell them on,” Kelvin Murray, a senior threat researcher at Opentext Security Solutions, told The Independent.

“As the people who run these sites become savvier, the scams that they employ to trick users into giving up their data will be harder to spot. Therefore, we recommend avoiding these types of websites and not putting yourself in danger.”

The proliferation of illegal streaming sites, and the ease with which they can be found online, saw nearly 10 million people watch the fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder last year.

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In an effort to protect rights holders and clamp down on the spread of free links to watch high-profile events, the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) launched a campaign in 2021 to spread awareness about the risks involved.

In the build-up to this weekend’s fight between Joshua and Usyk, FACT CEO Kieron Sharp said: . “Viewing content illegally puts users’ data at significant risk from hackers and organised criminals and, worryingly, exposes children to explicit content.

“To protect our children as well as our data, audiences must watch content only through the legal providers.”