Saturday night was the last event Top Rank Boxing aired on ESPN. The network declined to renew its distribution deal with Top Rank after working together for the past 8 years.
The last event featured a fight between Xander Zayas and Jorge Garcia for the WBO junior middleweight championship. It was Zayas that became the youngest world champion in boxing at the age of 22.
There is no word on the future of Top Rank events on linear television after this deal. Furthermore, there are no other boxing promotions that have current deals with a network. With HBO (2018) and Showtime (2023) shuttering its boxing programming, online streamer DAZN is one of the few places that have a deal with boxing promotions. New to the game, Netflix has a deal with Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian’s Most Valuable Promotions.
As Sportico points out, ESPN has been “discerning” with its combat sports properties. Golden Boy had a brief deal with ESPN before it left for DAZN, Top Rank is done for now and the UFC’s relationship with ESPN ends at the end of the year if a new deal, one in which it is looking for $1 Billion, is not forged.
One can see that ESPN’s strategy to include the likes of Golden Boy, Top Rank, the UFC and even the PFL was to fill out its digital platform, ESPN+. With another over-the-top streaming service coming this fall, we could see a renewal for the UFC to spearhead the service. Moreover, TKO Boxing, which may be another big swing to take over the sport is in the offing which could be a complimentary piece to the return of the UFC on ESPN.
With that being said, there are fewer outlets which air boxing for “free.” Free is in quotes because we are talking about cable and not even touching the reasons why its not on network television. One need only look to Premier Boxing Champions time on linear TV to see that the product is hard to sustain long term.
Top Rank’s departure underscores an argument made of proponents of the law to amend the Ali Act to include “Unified Boxing Organizations” to usurp the leverage of boxing organizations as they would act as both promoter and sanctioning bodies. Supporters claim that American boxing is in decline and the lack of a current television deal amplifies its cries to change the system.
The landscape of boxing right now seem to fall in line with what TKO is hoping as it looks to create a “UFC-model” boxing system where it can dictate the terms of its deals with fighters by being both promoter and sanctioning body.
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