By Mitch Abramson - It’s been 13 months since HBO decided to move away from boxing, and two things remain true. HBO still doesn’t do boxing, and Larry Merchant is still making astute observations. Yes, it’s been a little more than a year since HBO decided to throw in the towel, announcing on Sept. 27, 2018 that it was essentially retiring from the...
SHOWTIME Sports has released the official trailer and key art for the upcoming documentary film PARIAH: THE LIVES AND DEATHS OF SONNY LISTON, premiering Friday, November 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Written and directed by Simon George and told through original conversations with luminaries, historians and some of Liston’s closest friends and family, PARIAH chronicles the rise and precipitous fall of one of the most vilified and misunderstood sports champions of all time.
The World Boxing Super Series finals to date have delivered. Callum Smith broke through at super middleweight in a competitive affair with George Groves. Oleksandr Usyk stamped his place in cruiserweight history with a clinic against Murat Gassiev. 2019 will close with three more WBSS finals, all of them compelling for different reasons. This Jr. welterweight unification clash might be the best of the bunch. The 30-year Prograis (24-0, 20 KO, WBA) and 28-year old Taylor (15-0, 12 KO, IBF) is a clash that could make one man a genuine star. How they get there, by war or by dominance, remains to be seen. There have been few better fights made on paper this year.
DAZN and Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions will join forces in a global creative partnership. The first project will be the launch of a new feature documentary series called ONE NIGHT, a group of films looking back at indelible nights in recent boxing history. Additional projects and details will be announced in the coming months.
Golden Boy announced that its Thursday Night Fights series will now be streamed on DAZN. The series is set to continue today as Mexican warrior Elwin "La Pulga" Soto (15-1, 11 KOs) makes the first defense of his WBO Light Flyweight World Title against Filipino contender Edward "The Heneral Fighting" Heno (14-0-5, 5 KOs) in a 12-round main event at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif.
As shown once again on Friday night, Artur Beterbiev’s stiffest competition continues to come in the form of opposing broadcasts. The unbeaten light heavyweight extended his perfect knockout-to-win run on Friday, the latest effort coming at the highest level as he claimed the World (lineal) light heavyweight championship with a 10th round stoppage of Oleksandr Gvozdyk (17-1, 14KOs). The battle of unbeaten light heavyweight title claimants headlined a live ESPN telecast, which drew an average of 635,000 viewers according to Nielsen Media Research.
Back in March of 2018, WBC heavyweight world champion Deontay Wilder made a voluntary defense against Luis Ortiz at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Wilder dropped Ortiz three times before the contest was waved off in the tenth round. But before that happened, Ortiz had Wilder in serious trouble and ready to go in the seventh.
It was a risk the team was willing to take after 30 years of the same successful formula. Venturing out beyond its reliable go-to regions of Central and South Florida and Mexico City, however, wasn’t a rash decision made by All Star Boxing, Inc. and the Telemundo brass. “We didn’t want to just enter a new market for the sake of showing a new location,” Felix ‘Tutico’ Zabala Jr., president and CEO of All Star Boxing told BoxingScene.com in bringing Friday’s edition of Boxeo Telemundo to the Buffalo, New York area. “We also didn’t want to just package up a regular Florida show and put it where those fighters don’t connect with the fans.”
It might not be much of a scrap once it gets going but the heavyweight debut of 32-year old cruiserweight king Oleksandr Usyk (16-0, 12 KO) is worth a look. 38-year old Chazz Witherspoon (38-3, 29 KO) looked like a possible contender once but that was well over a decade ago.
Almost one year ago to the date, DAZN staged its first ever United States-based card on Oct. 6 when Jessie Vargas fought to a majority draw with Thomas Dulorme. That fight was the platform’s inaugural stateside show as part of the eight-year, $1 billion deal it signed with Matchroom Boxing. One week later, Golden Boy joined the cash caravan, highlighted by the unprecedented 10-fight, $365-million deal it signed for the star of the sport in Canelo Alvarez. Then, Gennady Golovin followed this March with a three-year, six-fight contract paying him upward of $100 million.