By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – The Danny Garcia-Keith Thurman fight finally will be announced Wednesday during a press conference in New York.

What hasn’t been determined is whether their March 4 welterweight title fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn will air on CBS or Showtime, which is owned by CBS. Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager for Showtime Sports, told BoxingScene.com on Thursday that a decision regarding airing Garcia-Thurman on free TV or premium cable is imminent.

“We’re very close,” Espinoza said. “I think within the next 48, 72 hours, we’ll have a determination whether it’s on Showtime or CBS. Selfishly, I’d love to see it on Showtime. But at the same time, it’s such a marquee fight and seems like a guaranteed barnburner, it would be a shame not to share it with the biggest audience possible. Which, of course, would be on CBS.”

CBS has not aired a live boxing event since Thurman out-pointed Shawn Porter on June 25 at Barclays Center. Thurman-Porter was considered one of the most entertaining action fights of 2016. It drew an average audience of 3.1 million viewers and peaked at 3.94 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The viewership success of Thurman-Porter produced optimism regarding the immediate future of boxing on free TV, but CBS’ decision to not air another boxing card over the past 6½ months has somewhat stunted that ratings momentum.

Nevertherless, Garcia-Thurman is one of the most highly anticipated fights on the 2017 boxing schedule. They’ll fight for the WBC world welterweight title owned by Philadelphia’s Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs) and the WBA world 147-pound championship possessed by Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs), of Clearwater, Florida.

“We’ve set the bar pretty high in this first quarter, with DeGale-Jack, Frampton-Santa Cruz and Thurman-Garcia,” Espinoza said. “Those are three tough fights to follow in the rest of the year. I think Thurman-Garcia, probably because the welterweights have always been the glamour division, is probably viewed as the marquee fight of the first half of the year. And rightly so. It promises to be a really good style matchup. And it’s really the right fight happening at the right time.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.