On Monday morning, this press release was sent out by Golden Boy Promotions, which announced a new television deal described as a “Multi-Media Rights Extension” between the promotional entity and Fox Sports:
FOX Sports and Golden Boy Promotions, founded by 10-time World Champion Oscar De La Hoya, have reached a multi-media rights extension to televise exciting live boxing in the United States and internationally. The new multi-year agreement keeps Golden Boy Promotions' bouts with FOX Sports for years to come, and helps establish a new Monday night boxing franchise on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), FOX Sports' new, national multi-sport cable channel launching on Aug. 17. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“When we started Golden Boy, we made a promise to only do business with the best companies out there,” said De La Hoya, President of Golden Boy Promotions. “To be partnered with FOX on this sensational series is a great fit. We look forward to working with FOX Sports 1 for years to come in giving fans the best boxing matches available.”
“Led by the dynamic Oscar De La Hoya and its Chief Executive Officer Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy Promotions has developed a great reputation over the last several years for putting together exciting cards with top-flight fighters,” said Patrick Crakes, Senior Vice President, Programming & Research, FOX Sports. “It's great that we've been able to build upon and expand what has already been a fruitful relationship that benefits multiple networks in the FOX Sports family, domestically and internationally.”
Under the new agreement, FOX Sports retains exclusive domestic rights to 48 live two-hour events (featuring two or three fights per event) annually with many of Golden Boy Promotions' brightest stars expected to be featured. FS1 is scheduling 24 live events per year, with FOX Deportes, the nation's leading Spanish-language sports network, airing all 48 events live, an increase from 36 in the previous deal. The 24 events on FS1 will all originate in the U.S., and most are expected to run on Monday nights once the network launches. FOX Deportes will simulcast the same 24 events as FS1 in Spanish, plus air 24 others that originate from Mexico. Once events air on FS1, each will be available for encore presentations on FOX Sports regional networks. Fox International Channels also holds exclusive rights to all 48 live fights in the Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe (excluding the U.K.) and Middle East territories. Finally, all events will be available via authenticated streaming through FOX Sports Go.
“We are thrilled to partner with FOX as the boxing provider for FOX Sports 1 and FOX Deportes,” added Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer. “For years, the best of boxing has been available primarily on premium cable and pay-per-view only, but our partnership with FOX Sports signifies a major step-up in exposure for the fighter, Golden Boy Promotions and the entire sport. We are confident that with our mix of world class fights and fighters combined with the reach and promotional capacities that FOX Sports provides, the sky is really the limit for us all.”
In addition to Golden Boy's live events, all FOX Sports channels have access to 24 classic archived events from the promoter's extensive library. Archive fights feature many of boxing biggest names, including De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Bernard Hopkins, Canelo Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Juan Manuel Marquez and Shane Mosley.”
Now, the devil is in the details, as they say. It still remains to be seen just how much of a license fee Golden Boy and Fox Sports have agreed on for this series (and that will have a direct impact on the quality of fights that are made) but on the surface, it seems like a winner for Golden Boy - which has a vast stable of fighters- and for fans of the “Sweet Science.” The most interesting part of this deal is that unlike most boxing telecasts, these cards will not take place on a Friday or Saturday night (which usually has the least amount of television viewership, according to the ratings) but instead on Monday night.
It harkens back to the days of Forum Boxing, which, for years, ran its cards twice a month on Monday nights from the Great Western Forum on Prime Ticket and later, Fox Sports.
BOB ASIAN
It didn't seem like Bob Arum was suffering any effects of jet-lag from his trip from Macao (where Top Rank staged a very well-received card from the Cotai Arena at the Venetian Macao Resort) back to the States this past weekend. Rocky Martinez retained his WBO 130-pound belt versus Diego Magdaleno; Juan Francisco Estrada dethroned flyweight champion Brian Viloria and most importantly, two-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming made a successful pro debut.
“It was great. They loved it in China; they loved it around the world. We're going to do a lot more of those,” Arum told Maxboxing on Monday afternoon. “It was on the front page of every sports page, in every paper throughout China.” And you can expect Top Rank to return in the summer months. As for the television audience in China, which was expected to be huge, Arum stated, “We only have anecdotal [numerical evidence], nothing official, but we're tracking to do more than 200 million [viewers].”
Arum also announced that Manny Pacquiao would be making his way to Asia for his next fight.
“That's where he's fighting; we have to get the opponent done - which we will, hopefully, this week - and why would we do it any other place? See, the difference is we have to do it Sunday morning, a Manny Pacquiao fight, for Saturday night in the United States. The next fight we're doing in the summer will be another prime-time China show,” Arum pointed out that the Pacquiao event could be in either Macao or Singapore. “You have to understand; it's the same company that owns the biggest property in Singapore that owns the Venetian in Macao. So they have to sort it out for themselves, where they want it. What do I care?”
He doesn't have to. Asian whales are swimming all over the place over there.
As for who the “Pac-Man” will face, Arum said all the usual suspects are in play.
MAY 18TH
It was made official on Monday afternoon that WBA junior welterweight titlist Lamont Peterson and WBC interim beltholder Lucas Matthysse will do battle on May 18th from the Boardwalk Hall on Showtime in what looks to be a can’t-miss match-up.
An interesting aspect of this fight is despite both boxers having 140-pound trinkets, this bout is being labeled as a “12-Round Welterweight Showdown” on its press release. It turns out this fight has a weight limit of 141 pounds. My guess is Matthysse, should he win this contest, does not want to lose his mandatory position to face WBC/WBA titlist Danny Garcia. And regardless of the result of this fight, neither would lose his respective belt. So yeah, this is essentially a 141-pound unification contest, a boxing first. But honestly, it shouldn't be all that big of a deal. The bottom line is nobody is really gaining a clear advantage with this catchweight and it's a fantastic pairing.
Here's the ticket info:
Tickets priced at $250, $125, $75, $50 and $25, plus applicable taxes and service charges, go on sale on Wednesday, April 10 at noon ET and will be available for purchase at the Boardwalk Hall box office, by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 736-1420 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.
CHAVEZ
The return of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was penciled in for June 22nd but according to Arum, it could be “June 15th, depending on the Nevada commission. We've talked to them. The question is when the suspension ends and I think we prefer to do it June 15th.” And Arum confirmed that former title challenger Darren Barker is in play to face Chavez Jr. in San Antonio, Texas.
Newly-crowned WBO featherweight titlist Mikey Garcia could open up this HBO broadcast, according to the veteran promoter.
MARCH MADNESS FLURRIES
Here's a link to Showtime's “All Access” for the Saul Alvarez-Austin Trout fight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP0-Au6POUU...Bahodir Mamadjonov has been named as the new opponent for Angelo Santana for this week’s edition of “ShoBox” from Treasure Island in Las Vegas...So the Fab Five reunion with Chris Webber and the Wolverines happened before Guns N’ Roses’ did...So did Angel Garcia get around to wishing Gennady Golovkin a happy birthday yesterday? I heard he's a big admirer of him. He thinks he's a good boy…
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