Though we’ve known it was coming for a while now, we have an announcement of the major broadcast deal between Bob Arum’s Top Rank promotional company and American sports powerhouse ESPN. We also have a date for the Jeff Horn and Manny Pacquiao rematch for later this year nestled within the press release.
One of the few things that is actually a little surprising about this announcement is its relatively long term arrangement. The deal is set to stretch for “a minimum of four years” according to Dan Rafael. This shows ESPN expressing a level of confidence in the boxing product that I would not necessarily have expected.
Already there have been three broadcasts before the deal was formalized (Pacquiao/Horn, Lomachenko/Marriaga, and Crawford/Indongo) and there should be four more before 2017 closes. First will be a Oscar Valdez and Gilberto Ramirez title doubleheader on September 22nd, then a Jessie Magdaleno defense on October 31st, then Jeff Horn/Manny Pacquiao II tentatively scheduled for November 11th, before finally Vasyl Lomachenko closes the year against likely Guillermo Rigondeaux on December 9th.
2018 is scheduled to give us eighteen cards, but what exactly that means is not completely clear. The press release mentions ESPN’s upcoming subscription service. Accordingly, some of those cards may be exclusive to that rather than airing on the main network. Time will tell. Golden Boy is also set to deliver eighteen cards to ESPN in 2018. These are smaller cards as Golden Boy is still using HBO as their main outlet, but this still means the ESPN family of networks will be very active in the sport over the next couple years.
That sure sounds good to me.
