Top Rank/ESPN To Announce Big New Deal

Raging Babe‏*@RagingBabe Top Rank press conference tomorrow at 10:30am PT. It will air live on ESPN3 and stream live on the ESPN app. #boxing

PBC had me excited about boxing in 2015. Top Rank has me excited about boxing in 2017. PBC is still out there. I imagine a FOX deal is in the offing for one..

PBC had me excited about boxing in 2015. Top Rank has me excited about boxing in 2017. This Top Rank ESPN deal is for 4 years. I'm excited for 2018 and beyond.

Rafael Lomacheko-Rigondeaux: Bob (Dublin) Any news on Loma v Rigo Dan Rafael, The Boxing Guy (12:28 PM) Working on the deal. I expect it to be done soon. Rich (Seattle) What do you think the odds are that lomachenko vs rigondeaux gets made? Dan Rafael, The Boxing Guy (12:29 PM) 99% http://www.espn.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/52295/boxing-with-dan-rafael

Rafael on Pacquiao-Horn II: Vin (Birmingham UK) Hi Dan. Any news on Pacman vs Horn 2? Dan Rafael, The Boxing Guy (12:30 PM) They are working through the details but it is going to be Nov. 11 on ESPN. http://www.espn.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/52295/boxing-with-dan-rafael

Rafael confirms what tomorrow's announcement will be: Chris Roswell NM If the fight happens will Loma vs Rigo be on espn? Dan Rafael, The Boxing Guy (12:56 PM) Yes. All Top Rank fights are now exclusive to ESPN. There is a press conference Saturday morning to announce the long term deal. Juan (NYC) Hi Dan, Top Rank anouncement tomorrow will have anything to do with future ESPN PPV cards and/or streaming service that was announced by Disney? Dan Rafael, The Boxing Guy (1:00 PM) Yes. http://www.espn.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/52295/boxing-with-dan-rafael

TR would certainly need opponents for his fighters. They may end up signing with Arum. Or maybe they'll just keep dissing Haymon in public while negotiating with him in private. Two of Crawford's last three opponent's are Haymon clients, for instance.

Top Rank is going to sign a lot more stars once PBC can't pay their fighters like they promised. Thurman and Garcia only made about 2 mill a piece after getting a mill for a lot of fights. The money isn't there anymore. These guys are sitting around and barely fighting now. I guarantee you that a big name from PBC will jump shark very soon. Also Golden Boy and Rod Nation will do work with Bob but they won't do work with Al, so you have guys like WARD, Lemiuex, Cotto, and others who are there to make fights. Though I expect HBO to still have their hand in the game for certain fights. TR would certainly need opponents for his fighters. They may end up signing with Arum.

This really could be massive for US boxing if handled right. From what i can gather ESPN is as close to Sky Sports as you guys have in terms of a single channel being essential for an American sports fan? Being able to advertise fights/ fighters on big NFL games (and whatever other big sports ESPN show) like Sky do with limeyball could be huge. Just having more boxing related chat on sports shows in general has to be a good thing. B.Arum has his faults, but the man is a hustler through and through. Yes espn has been THE sports channel for a long time but they've been dying for a while now

This really could be massive for US boxing if handled right. From what i can gather ESPN is as close to Sky Sports as you guys have in terms of a single channel being essential for an American sports fan? Being able to advertise fights/ fighters on big NFL games (and whatever other big sports ESPN show) like Sky do with limeyball could be huge. Just having more boxing related chat on sports shows in general has to be a good thing. B.Arum has his faults, but the man is a hustler through and through.

Not sure if this was posted already or not....but since DuBoef is part of Saturday's announcement and reportedly played a key part in the ESPN deal, figured it might be worth posting it here. The talk of PPV's and shoulder programming is interesting...and it's defintely something you see with the UFC/FOX/FS1 and all the weigh-in, prelims, pre/post fight coverage. Looks like Top Rank took note of that. https://www.si.com/boxing/2017/08/01/top-rank-boxing-agreement-changing-sport DuBoef is quick to emphasize that he doesn’t see the ESPN agreement as one that will replace the PPV model or kill boxing on the premium networks. In fact, he argues that the increased exposure will increase buys when, in the near future, Crawford and Lomachenko enter the Pay-Per-View universe. In the interim, top prospects like featherweight Shakur Stevenson and super bantamweight Michael Conlin can compete on the ESPN cards, with the goal of becoming more familiar to non-boxing addicts. The Pacquiao-Horn fight, according to two sources with knowledge of negotiations, was more of a throw-in than the centerpiece of the ESPN deal. But the numbers that resulted far exceeded the greatest expectations of anyone involved. He was particularly interested in the “shoulder programming,” or all the pre- and post-event coverage. Top Rank even conducted a poll in that regard. In just one-quarter of any one year, the UFC did “three to four” times the amount of shoulder programming boxing did in the last three years. “We’re not getting the casual sports fan or resonating with the tweeners,” DuBoef said. “We need to take our product there. You have to have everything going. YouTube. Phones. I don’t think you can do it on an island.”

I think that is a definite plus with folks that solely stream these days like me. The current ESPN app is actually pretty good, and I was able to view the entire boxing broadcast with no coverage run-over from other programs. That's the advantage that TV streaming will have in the future. There would be no overlap eating into another's time frame because you watch what sport you want a la carte. Yeah, I don't know how many times FNF got delayed because of events like women's softball.

That was a debacle. Hopefully one benefit a streaming service is viewers/subscribers will have the option of watching fights without the delays and channel switching that not only hurt the Lomachenko fight....but often plagued Friday Night Fights. I think that is a definite plus with folks that solely stream these days like me. The current ESPN app is actually pretty good, and I was able to view the entire boxing broadcast with no coverage run-over from other programs. That's the advantage that TV streaming will have in the future. There would be no overlap eating into another's time frame because you watch what sport you want a la carte.

I thought this was an old topic. I didn't realize this was posted today. This is an invite to a forum about boxing moderated by Stephen A. Smith. It says nothing about a deal between ESPN and Top Rank. It's speculation, based on what's been written so far, by Coppinger and others. Having Burke Magnus, executive vice president of programming & scheduling, involved does seem to suggest something more than just the announcement of a particular fight.

I may hate Bob but I'm hoping whatever deal he makes with espn yields his top guys against the top guys at pbc, gbp, Hearn, mcguigan, k2, main events and eventually ringstar/Schaefer. If having an espn deal expands who you can fight (like it used to be when you got an hbo deal) so I can see the best go at it then I will be happy.

Arum apparently trying to lower expectations.... Bob Arum bobarum Saturday's breakfast press conference at wynnLasVegas Encore Theater with @ESPN and TRBoxing will change #boxing forever. 10:30 a.m.

Rafael was wrong or Espinoza/SHO changed their mind? Maybe, maybe not

Top Rank will need to do something big eith its stable. They need Verdejo and Valdez to pan out so this can be big. they need star power

But what, exactly, do u think is wrong with how their showing Boxing now? What would u change? There were Hall of Fame ceremonies prior to the Loma fight. The ceremonies went overtime gobbling up more than one hour worth of undercard fights. ESPN didn't give a fk.

They'll both fight again this year, setting up their showdown next year. Rafael was wrong or Espinoza/SHO changed their mind?