ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports broadcasting, has decided it can make do without Top Rank. The legacy promotion is twisting in the wind as it heads to a summer expiration date on its time with ESPN with no new deal in place.
Front Office Sports first reported the news Tuesday that ESPN intends to withdraw from its eight-year partnership when its current deal expires later this year. A Top Rank official previously told BoxingScene the final Top Rank on ESPN card was expected to occur in July.
While Top Rank officials declined to identify the current contract’s ending as a permanent split between Top Rank and ESPN, one official said the report’s timing is “nefarious” because Top Rank is actively working with others to broker its next major broadcast/streaming deal.
ESPN is seemingly honoring any remaining leverage for Top Rank by declining to comment on the Front Office Sports report.
Still, it had been stirring for months that ESPN intended to withdraw from its union with Top Rank when this current deal expires later this year, and Top Rank has been actively negotiating with other broadcasters.
Front Office Sports reported ESPN has informed Top Rank that it can exit its deal before its scheduled summer expiration date should the promotion strike another broadcast agreement.
As it heads to a Friday card on ESPN headlined by promising lightweight contender Keyshawn Davis fighting new WBO champion Denys Berinchyk at the Madison Square Garden Theater, Top Rank is plotting a broadcast or streaming future with “two or three” partners, according to a company official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
The most prominent player in those discussions has been Warner Bros. Discovery, which would offer Top Rank a broadcast home on Turner Sports and a streaming platform on HBO Max, according to an official familiar with the talks.
The charismatic Olympic silver medalist Davis fighting for a world title offers Top Rank a welcome jolt as the talent in their stable has diminished in recent years. Ex-heavyweight champion Tyson Fury lost his belt to Oleksandr Usyk and retired. Four-division champion Terence Crawford and three-division champion Shakur Stevenson left the company. Three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko is sidelined by injury. And two-division champion Teofimo Lopez participated in two modest shows before rejecting a March date.
While ESPN retains ties to combat sports as the cable and streaming home to the UFC, the sports giant could also still offer a home to boxing with UFC parent company TKO moving toward participating in a boxing league.
Top Rank has upcoming ESPN spring cards headlined by the March 29 Mikaela Mayer-Sandy Ryan women’s lightweight title rematch and an April 5 lightweight title eliminator pitting contenders Raymond Muratalla and Zaur Abdullaev.
The promotion is also planning a Las Vegas return by Japan’s undisputed super-bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue, perhaps on Cinco de Mayo weekend.
A Top Rank spokesman expressed appreciation for the promotion’s “existing relationship with ESPN,” as an “industry defining experience.”
Losing the reach of ESPN is viewed by many, including those in the company, as a black eye given the network’s global reach for a sport that boasts worldwide appeal.
ESPN’s departure follows the exodus of HBO and Showtime from the sport, and further emphasizes DAZN as the leading streaming power in the sport given its ties to Saudi Arabia financier Turki Alalshikh.
Alalshikh is staging a February 22 card in Saudi Arabia featuring title fights in the heavyweight, light heavyweight and lightweight divisions on DAZN.
Topping the card is the undisputed light heavyweight title defense by Top Rank-promoted Artur Beterbiev of Russia.
Alalshikh has plans for similarly formidable cards and bouts to come on DAZN, including pitting Crawford against fellow four-division champion Canelo Alvarez in September.
Read the full article here
