ESPN reports that “Premier Boxing Champions,” the upstart promotion advised by Al Haymon will replace ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” starting Saturday, July 11th. The two year deal will run through July 2017 and include two shows on the ABC network on Saturday afternoons.
The deal with ESPN includes 24 events over the course of the deal and an option by Haymon to hold 6 additional cards. Haymon will have to pay the fighter purses and other expenses related to the events. ESPN retains worldwide rights to the fights and editorial control over the broadcast.
Weigh-ins and prelim bouts for the events will be available on ESPN3.com. PBC will also be available on other digital platforms.
Via ESPN:
Haymon’s investors are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the PBC, which this year already announced deals with NBC/NBCSN (40 shows through 2016), CBS (at least eight shows this year in a multiyear deal), Spike TV (at least 33 monthly shows through 2017) and Bounce TV (monthly prospect-oriented cards beginning in July on the network Haymon helped found in 2011).
Notably, UFC 189 will air on the same night that PBC debuts on ESPN.
Payout Perspective:
Haymon’s PBC is now on, or will be on NBC/NBCSN, CBS, Spike TV, Bounce TV, ESPN and ABC. Now we know why Haymon has such a robust stable of fighters. He needs them to fill all of these events. It’s clear that Haymon and his investors have a strategy and we are seeing it being executed. There is a long term vision and even if there are setbacks, they are willing to see this through. The return of boxing to ABC Saturday afternoons should evoke memories for some of ABC’s Wide World of Sports which featured boxing among other sports during the 1970s and 1980s.
At this point PBC’s debuts on NBC and Spike TV have been promising. But with so many events on so many networks, will the audience dwindle? We shall see.
Jeeze, the UFC tries to expand on TV and gets one US market and a few really shit 3rd and 4rth world deals in places where most people don’t have toilets. Boxing wow!! grabs all the major US markets. Lets see how it workouts out, they still have some work to do.
The real plan here is Haymens attempted to make himself the UFC/Dana White of boxing. The UFC showed boxing needs a nexus that can organize the sport and take away the everyone for themselves that has destroyed boxing. Again we are seeing boxing copy the UFC. Just as they did when they started making fights they otherwise wouldn’t and putting more talent on cards. Funny it took them two decades to realize that they need to be under a single roof to get meaningful tv deals. MMA is saving boxing from extinction!
LMAO yea sure mma is saving boxing, go smoke some more weed!! I will say this, looks like boxing could get watered down like MMA if they are not careful. Funny how morons have no sense of boxing history. Haymen is on a long list of guys just like him , all over the world that have been promoting boxing like a circus since man began to walk! Dana is a cheap copy of 1930’s boxing and wrestling figure head
dana admits to covering WWE’s model. hayomn is screwing this up. to may networks are now involved. its going to confuse people. just keep it with one newtork and get them great numbers. fans are going to get confused. this hurt the UFC. Up until last year boxing fans knew all fights were either on HBO or Showtime. now its on NBC, Spike, ESPN, Bounce TV, etc. confusing
Saldaqueef once again acting like he knows anything about boxing or mma. Everyone can see this homo is a total moron and is a welfare paid troll for Arum.
Fightbusiness is as coherent as Muhammad Ali.
“The real plan here is Haymens attempted to make himself the UFC/Dana White of boxing.”
I agree.
“too may networks are now involved. its going to confuse people. just keep it with one newtork and get them great numbers”
I also agree. But maybe it could work if Haymon manages to blanket coverage enough to generate a sustainable buzz. I can see this either making a lot of money or losing a lot of money. Time will tell. But I’m happy to see so much investment in boxing.
What Haymon is doing is smart.
All major boxers and stars with be on the main channels. The NBCs, ABCs, CBSs, etc…
The up and comers or the lower tier fighters all have these other sub channels to fight on. Spike TV, CBSportsnetwork,NBCSports, possibly BET as well I heard.
ESPN is what I would consider the bridge between the lower channels and the big networks.
170+ fighters in his stable, so he needs networks to get them their fights.
What Haymon is doing is actually going to turn into a disaster. He doesn’t even have a deal in place yet with these networks, just buy time and he these events are losing millions.
When this is over and done with, he will never receive a dime in future from any investor not name Floyd Gayweather.
Maybe haymon’s plan is to put certain boxers in certain channels and make them stars in each channel…broner on nbc,garcia on espn.wilder on this channel…a champ / boxing tv star per channel…..as far as getting boxing in mainstream tv ..his doing a good job,there trying to create a” bandwagon “effect
If he is buying time then he has to hope the results convince networks to sign a deal. But so many networks hurt the numbers of individual networks. So it seems to me he is dumping money buying time to boost the popularity of his group of guys and then pull out and hope the venture boosts their PPV and premium cable ratings. Which is sad because once again this would mean no long term plan for boxing as a whole. Just another idiot with short term goal for his own benefit.
A lot of ppl are paying attention to boxing that weren’t before.
Why not swarm the network channels with fights with Mayweather-Pacquiao two months away.
Boxing is getting big attention for the biggest fight in history, so it seems a perfect time to push boxing back into the mainstream.
UFCs deal is up in a few years. Watch PBC take its place.
HAHAHA!!! Look at how desperate the Gayest is! He’s trying so hard to convince himself of his bullshit!!
Boxing’s in the shitter! 1 fight left!!!
THE GAYEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Al went to Harvard, so maybe he knows a thing or 2, his style is far from Dana white, Dana couldn’t walk a minute in Haymon’s shoes nor can many in boxing. Funny Haymon is using his own money he didn’t have to borrow a half a billion to float his promotion. He already has more than double the TV deals as the UFC and he is just getting started. HMMMM why isn’t the UFC breaking out big time? Lost major numbers, including gate, ppv, tuf, tv since the fox deal. So anyone trying to be like the ufc is an idiot.
That’s kind of funny because Zuffa could buy out Haymon 1000x over. Haymon wishes he had the money they have. Also, Haymon is not using his own money you cum stain. You just literally make shit up as you go along. His tv deals are a joke you fucking idiot, HE PAYS THEM!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! The UFC has a massive hundreds of millions of dollars contract with FOX. How can you be this retarded?? Everything you claim is a lie. You are a retarded 50 year freak.