Matchroom Boxing, a world leading boxing promoter, and Perform Group, the digital leader in global sports media, have today announced the creation of a landmark $1billion joint venture and the biggest-ever deal in boxing.
A middleweight title will be at stake on Saturday, June 23, live and exclusively in the United States on ESPN+ — the recently-launched multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company's Direct-to-Consumer and International segment, in partnership with ESPN.
Ryan Garcia has roughly 857,000 followers on Instagram and 61,000 Twitter followers. His fight Friday night, the biggest test of Garcia’s fast-developing career, also drew an announced crowd of 6,625 to StubHub Center in Carson, California. Garcia still has some work to do in terms of becoming a television draw, though.
One of the best female fighters in the world not currently holding a world title, Crews-Dezurn (3-1, 1 KO) will return to the ring for a six-round fight on the non-televised undercard of the blockbuster “It’s Our Time to Shine” event featuring two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and current Unified Women’s Super Middleweight Champion Shields attempting to become a two-division world champion against unified 154-pound champion Hanna Gabriels for the vacant IBF and WBA Women’s Middleweight World Championships.
Viewers weren’t afforded much time, but that didn’t stop more than 1.3 million of them from tuning in to watch Gennady Golovkin’s fight Saturday night. Nielsen Media Research ratings released Tuesday showed a peak audience of 1,361,000 watched Golovkin’s second-round knockout of Vanes Martirosyan, which HBO televised from StubHub Center in Carson, California. The brief Golovkin-Martirosyan match was watched by an average of 1,249,000 viewers, despite that it began late on the East Coast (12:07 a.m. ET).
UFC®, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization, and The Walt Disney Company’s new Direct-To-Consumer & International segment along with ESPN, have reached an immersive, multi-year media rights agreement for exclusive live UFC content on ESPN+, as well as across a variety of ESPN’s television, social and digital platforms, in English and Spanish, taking effect in January 2019.
THE LONG-TERM just got longer as far as our, so far hugely successful, partnership with BT Sport is concerned and I was delighted to make public the extension of our agreement to stage boxing on behalf of such a major and progressive broadcaster.
The bout was quickly arranged following the suspension of Golovkin’s Mexican nemesis Canelo Alvarez after he tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol which saw their eagerly anticipated Las Vegas rematch cancelled.
The ratings for FOX’s boxing tripleheader Saturday night were notably lower than those from the network’s previous boxing offering on free TV. Premier Boxing Champions’ three-fight FOX broadcast Saturday night – headlined by Josesito Lopez’s 10-round, unanimous-decision win against previously unbeaten welterweight prospect Miguel Cruz – was watched by an average of 839,000 viewers, according to ratings released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. The average audience for FOX’s telecast February 17, which featured a 12-round draw between former welterweight champions Devon Alexander and Victor Ortiz, was 1,136,000.
Beginning in the late 1980’s, Donna has been involved in all areas of boxing, from the club level to televised and world championship boxing promotions when Main Events started with Donna's late brother Dan Duva. During Duva-Brooks time at Main Events, the world class level company promoted such notable champions as Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor, Arturo Gatti, Vinny Pazienza and Mark Breland to name a few.