Machado and Mensah will face off in their title fight on Saturday, July 21, at 10:00 PM PST / 5 AM GMT. Their fight will serve as a co-main event to another fight scheduled to happen: Jaime Munguia vs Liam Smith. Both fights will take place at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Munguia v Smith / Machado v Mensah double on HBO this weekend https://t.co/OGMoABMEOt @HBOboxing pic.twitter.com/2rqAKT4unT
— World Boxing News (@WorldBoxingNews) July 18, 2018
Due to the small scale of this fight, the venue is relatively small as well. There’s a 4,000 person seating capacity at The Joint. Additionally, viewing options are fairly minimal for this fight. Although there are co-main fights involved, live viewing is very restricted. HBO Boxing is hosting the event, which is being promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.
Best VPN for Machado vs Mensah: ExpressVPN
If you’re traveling outside of the countries where Machado vs Mensah is broadcasting, you may be able to still access the fight online. To do so, you’ll need to utilize a virtual private network, or VPN, in order to bypass geographic content restrictions that are currently in place.
A good VPN will help you hide your true location by connecting you to a server in a country of your choice (such as the US or Australia). From there, any site you connect to will believe you are currently located in the correct country and let you right in.
Not every VPN can effectively bypass restrictive content blocks. Of those we’ve tested, ExpressVPN offers up a large number of server options, high server speeds, unlimited bandwidth, and effective bypassing of content blocks. The service also has a large number of apps covering every device you might use to watch the match.
EXCLUSIVE DEAL: Get an extra three months at no added cost by signing up to ExpressVPN’s annual plan. This includes a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it risk-free.
To get your VPN effectively working with one of the services below, do the following:
- Sign up for your VPN subscription
- Download and install the VPN on a select device
- Connect to one of the countries mentioned below
- Access the website for the service you’re trying to unblock
With your correct account credentials, you should be able to fully unblock the match through the service of your choice.
United States
If you’re in the US, you cannot live stream this event without a traditional cable subscription or cord-cutting service. This is because HBO Boxing does not have its own live streaming service, and you cannot watch pay-per-view events via HBO’s individual streaming service, HBO Now.
Your best option is to get a free 7-day trial of Sling TV, add HBO to your channel lineup as an extra channel, and then order HBO Boxing pay-per-view through there. Unfortunately, there are slim pickings when it comes to other options in the US.
In the future, US boxing fans will finally have access to less complicated boxing and MMA streaming through the DAZN service. DAZN will be available to US consumers in September.
Live streams outside of the US (Australia, India, Russia, and more)
Good news for boxing fans outside of the US! You can use the website Epicentre.TV to view the Machado vs Mensah fight live online and for a fairly low cost.
Simply head over to to the Epicentre.TV page for the Munguia vs Smith fight. (Remember: this is a co-main match, but Mungia vs Smith is actually the real main event as it has much heavier promotions.) You can watch the fight for just $11.69 AUD. The website lists $14.95 in one location, but this may be in error.
You can watch the match live on Epicentre.TV if you are located in: Australia, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, and Russia.
Because this service only accepts credit card payments, a VPN will only work from outside of these countries if you have a local credit card as well.
Who will win, Machado or Mensah?
At the moment, betting odds are 8 to 1 in favor of a Machado victory. These odds may change as we get closer to the July 21 championship fight in Las Vegas, but those odds are based on a few factors that favor Machado.
Between the two boxers, Machado has a better record. The 27-year-old Machado, who’s nicknamed “El Explosivo” or The Explosive Man, currently has an undefeated record in his weight class. He has 19 wins with 16 wins by KO. He is the defending WBA Super Featherweight champion.
Mensah has had 31 career wins with 23 knockouts. Although he has more wins and fights than Machado, much less is known about the 27-year-old challenger. To date, he has never had a match outside of his native Ghana. As such, his ranking (42) is far below that of Machado, who is currently ranked #3 in the world for Featherweights.
If you’re looking to bet on the match, but you’re outside of the US, you can still do so. We recommend checking out our guide on the best VPNs for betting and gambling.