Documentary review: Watch The Throne (2025)

"This here isn't a story about 36 minutes of action. No, this is far more complex. This... is a tale as old as time." It's the tale of Tom Day's awful boxing documentaries for DAZN.

The turnaround times on these documentaries are starting to get a bit silly. The 'Day of Reckoning' card took place in December 2023 and the Day of Reckoning documentary came out in April 2024 (5 months difference). Usyk-Fury II took place in December 2024 and this documentary came out in August 2025 (9 months difference). Compare this to the old HBO 24/7 and Showtime All-Access epilogues, which used to be released a mere one week after fight night. Now, to be fair to them, they probably didn't start production on this straight after the fight, but lucky for me I don't have to be fair. Or nice. It's my own website, I'll be whatever I wanna do. And I'mma be honest, I'm done giving them the benefit of the doubt, in this house we are out of good grace.

The usual suspects are back, only this time they're taking on even more of a starring role. And in their quest to avoid making boxing about the boxers, the documentary and its new expansive cast favours talking to [expletive expletive expletives] like Spencer Brown instead. It felt like intentional mockery when halfway through the documentary Melissa Takimoglu tells us that "the fighters, they're the stars of the show." Don't worry this PR person really understands why people care about boxing, and explains why you can't take your eyes off of it, despite the sport being so culturally irrelevant that the names of yesteryear (Ali, Tyson, Mayweather, Pacquiao etc) are still the touchstone references of this day.

This is, as I feared it would be, the British documentary. Complete with a detour to a random countryside mansion and narration by some birds and 'propah geezah' Paul Anderson, previously seen in the Ring of Fire promo (whatever happened to these eh?) The only Ukrainian besides Usyk to get some speaking lines is Alex Krassyuk. While we're regaled with directionless nonsense such as re-enactments of Frank Warren rushing out of hospital after being shot and John Fury's failed boxing career, after several of these documentaries I find myself wondering how much I know about Usyk. Why did he start boxing? Does he enjoy fighting? Who were the fighters he looked up to as a kid? None of these get answered about Usyk, but all are covered in painstaking detail for the fighter he beat twice.

'Watch The Throne' would have you believe that Fury is a noble loser. Across 24 rounds of boxing against Usyk, you'd be hard-pressed to argue that Fury won more than 8 or 9 clearly, yet instead of accepting the better man won each time he'll insist to his dying day that both decisions were robberies. The reality is that Tyson Fury is a sore loser, doubtless one of the most sore losers heavyweight boxing has ever seen. Documentaries like this are supposed to put add Usyk's name to the pantheon, but they do not understand the assignment. Unlike me, they don't have the stones to say that believing in Tyson Fury is as ill-advised as believing in Ferrari's F1 prospects, it's clear why people did it once upon a time but come on man.

I've previously questioned the choice to use pre-fight interviews/footage in a post-fight documentary. It would be nice to see how Usyk is doing as champ. I'd like to see somebody challenge Fury on which rounds he supposedly won while watching the fight in real-time. While the reason for this stylistic choice might never be revealed, one obvious advantage of it is that they can Stalin out anything that their narrative doesn't want to cover. All the talk about Fury being in the best shape of his life in both fights? Never happened. The post-fight scramble to point out that the emperor was wearing a lot of extra pounds? Never hoida it. The comically long staredown and Fury cracking under the pressure? Not important, we've got to make room for tactless Riyadh Season and Ring Magazine ad reads.

Alongside literal advertisements, there's plenty of self-advertising too. Such as Mauricio Suleiman showing up to incorrectly mexsplain how boxing is scored. I was already suspicious the moment his dead eyes appeared, and my suspicions that this moron is an idiot were confirmed when the president of the World Boxing Council neglected to mention that defense is also used to judge rounds. Then again, this is the Fury documentary. Offense is all that matters. And there's plenty of offensive material as everyone curses like barefoot sailors being death marched along a LEGO brick road.

Despite being billed as a new documentary, it's still a rerun in several stretches. Like Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn retelling the story of how the scent of money was such a powerful aphrodisiac that they were ready to turn tricks on street corners as soon as Turki Alalshikh's wallet walked into the room with him. You might remember them having different recollections of this meeting. Ideally you wouldn't because who cares? They did mess it up. It'd be like several WW2 documentaries in a row extolling how brilliant the Maginot Line or Atlantic Wall is.

Gareth A. Davies, the unfortunate result of chimera experiments involving Bearded Collies and failed Vegas magicians on the cusp of a cocaine overdoses, is also back again. I don't why but on top of everything there is to dislike about him (his suits, those stupid sunglasses he's always wearing, his mother's maiden name etc) his voice really annoys me. It's worse than just the unintelligent nonsense he spouts, it's the complete lack of spirit, as though every syllable is cursed with the unmissable absence of God.

Ade Oladipo continues to be done dirty by the editors. "It was the most shocked I've ever been" in response to something not particularly shocking (Fury getting rocked in round 9) is the kind of ditzy comment usually found in old MTV reality shows. Oladipo makes it too easy, not even 'The Situation' would be so foolish as to claim that Fury "somehow stole round 10" when Fury lost round 10 on all three scorecards. Who cares amirite? It's only boxing. It doesn't matter that these documentaries do a poor job of documenting the sport. Oladipo takes extra care to call Usyk "a six foot two-and-a-half guy" but I don't recall him ever challenging the fairytale that Tyson Fury is 6'9".

There are so many cheap errors, like including low-quality archive photographs when flashing back to archive covers of Ring Magazine or old photos of Robert Arum. They continue to describe Teddy Atlas as a """legendary boxing coach""" and Steve 'Buncey' Bunce as a """boxing expert""". Boy, I sure hope somebody got fired for that blunder! Atlas replays his role from the earlier Undisputed documentary where he ends the show with a long shaggy dog story attributed to Ali. I'm guessing they couldn't find a source for Ali telling that story because I couldn't find a source for it. Or more likely they didn't even bother to look. It's only the heavyweight championship of the world after all. Why bother tying the past to the present like all other successful sports do when you can instead get D-listers to paraphrase?

The biggest attempt to acknowledge the existence of history was the interlude about the statue which has been called Sitting Boxer, Boxer at Rest, and, most recently, Terme Boxer. I could be wrong but I believe it's the only statue to have been photographed with both Deontay Wilder and Adolf Hitler.

The commentary geezah tells us that this statue is of a time "When men fought with their fists. No gloves." It then gives a close-up of the hands of the statue, complete with cestus (ancient gloves). An old newspaper column by Paul Gallico (pronounced by Anderson as 'Gallicio' for some reason) is cited to "unravel the mystery" of the statue. Sure, it's kind of interesting to speculate about the history behind it. But we'll never know if it's an ode to the winner or a loser. The ultimate point made is that father time was unfortunately against Fury despite Usyk being older. This isn't watching the throne, it's 70 minutes of watching jesters and leeches whore themselves out to the highest bidder on a disastrously bad streaming platform.

When Eddie Hearn does a reverse Porky Pig at the end (why would anything nice ever happen?), it's to remind people that Anthony Joshua Will Return in the heavyweight boxing cinematic universe. They wouldn't waste our precious time by peddling a fight that isn't going to happen, would they? I mean, they have before but this time Charlie Brown will definitely kick the football! They don't even have the balls to do a documentary critically analysing why some notable big fights didn't happen despite the theory being that A) there was a price at which those fights could have been made, and B) the Saudis were throwing infinity money at boxing. If there was ducking or obstructionism, who was responsible?

Barry Jones, whose disembodied squeaky-voice features throughout Watch The Throne as archive commentary, said something a few months ago along the lines of "Fury and AJ, that's great fight innit? Who wouldn't wanna see that? I'd wanna see that fight even if they were 70!" Let me say it loud and clear: I no longer want to see this fight. It probably will happen when these old and washed boxers are even older and more washed in 1-2 years time. Or later than that. Or perhaps never. If it does happen, it'll be like the long-awaited and eventually meaningless Amir Khan vs. Kell Brook fight. For all the talk about the importance of stories in boxing, this is the most pisspoor crop of storytellers that the sport has ever seen. It's just empty platitudes upon lies upon chronic indifference.

In December last year I wrote that: "Nobody can say with any certainty when this golden age of attention and money will begin to wane. But if the approach continues to be 'leave well enough alone' when things are clearly unwell, then it will wane sooner rather than later." I don't know about you but it seems to me like things are waning somewhat. Maybe he's busy with other stuff but I haven't seen Ronaldo at the Riyadh cards in a minute.

And stop asking about Usyk, damn it. "Usyk walked off into the sunset, adding his name to some of the greats; Foreman, Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, the Klitschkos, even Fury himself." They really can't help theyselves.

Final Review Scores
In a word: Delulu
In a sentence: My empire of dirt for an Usyk-focused documentary.
In a number: 2.82
In an emoji: 🥓
In a flu: Spanish

'Watch The Throne' is available on شاهد and DAZN
Director/Producer/Writer: Tom Day (We Go Again Studios)
Production companies: Saudi General Entertainment Authority, Sela, BigTime Creative Shop, and We Go Again.
Runtime: 01:09:30

I've been trying to avoid doing separate lists of petty nickpicks but the line "you don't need Webster's Dictionary to tell you the definition of a fighter" got me because Webster's is an American dictionary. "Webster's defines x as..." is an American meme. The British equivalent would/should be the Oxford English Dictionary.