Top Rank/ESPN To Announce Big New Deal

[-Antonio-]

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.

[Scipio2009]

That assumes that Top Rank isn't willing to work with fighters outside it's roster, and that it's roster won't expand at all.

Hauser said part of what the investor money was intened to do was to "provide financial assistance for the signing and development of fighters".

That may not just have been amateuir prospects like Stevenson and Conlan.

There's been rumors about Top Rank looking to work with Beterbiev beyond just his next fight, and there's the persistent Andre Ward speculation as well.

If the investor did pull out, maybe Top Rank has had to delay or scale back some of it's plans to bring in other fighters...but that doesn't mean they're off the table if Top Rank finds a different money source.

Arum's built an no for the last 20 years, to be sure, of doing just that; he'll gladly stage fights with Zanfer Promotions, largely because he knows that they seem to have zero interest in setting up shop stateside. If he's ever had to actually open his books for a real co-promotion, or actually stand as the B-side promoter, he'll ***** the entire time, regardless of how much money he's set to get.

Andre Ward made an alleged $10m on the two Kovalev fights because RocNation is betting their company on him; whether they made no money on the fights or even lost some, Andre Ward is set for superstardom and RocNation is looking at 5-6 more Ward fights (Ward's already made it clear that he has no interest in being Bernard Hopkins, but those big paydays at the end may keep him a touch longer) to make some money on the Ward deal, but also put their young fighters in position to earn for the company.

Do you honestly see Bob Arum ever doing such a thing?

[Mitchell Kane]

Adonis Stevenson will finally make his mandatory defense against Elieder Alvarez, and Andre Ward is likely to make a mandatory defense for one of his titles.

Maybe it's me being simple, but Showtime airing Stevenson-Alvarez from Montreal, Showtime airing Ward's next fight (Ward-Beterbiev from Oracle or Ward-Cleverly in NYC/Ward-Jack with MGM Resorts), and then Showtime/CBS weighing out putting Ward-Stevenson on CBS (Garcia and Thurman did split $4m) or making the investment to put the fight on SHOPPV.

How large do you see the ESPN money being really?

Ward-Stevenson could certaily happen, but let's be honest....much of Stevenson's relevance ended with Kovalev.

That was the fight to make.

Stevenson's largely a sideshow now....a barely active champion holding a title hostage who's now a month away from turning 40.

Stevenson hardly seem vital to Ward's career.

With that said, Ward is still currently with Roc Nation, and Stevenson is currently probably the biggest money fight and RN needs to pay Ward, so yeah, perhaps that fight gets made.

But beyond that....Gvozdyk and Beterbiev are both top 5 contenders.

If the Top Rank/ESPN schedule ends up being Beterbiev-Koelling in October and Gvozdyk-Barrera in December, then either fight could produce a viable opponent for Ward next year.

[daggum]

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.

thats already happened. look at the shows they are putting on. all low budget shows. they had a couple big fights the entire year that were financed by showtime and other fights were financed by other promoters. people will leave if they can but it might not be so easy getting away from haymon. he prob knows how to get his hooks in legally. im sure he would rather destroy or hinder careers then let them go to places he does not want them to go. even arum let floyd leave for a small fee but hes evil?

[al-Xander]

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.

Lara probably wanted $2 mil for the Andrade fight because he got used to getting $1 mil for Zaveck-type opponents. He expected more in the Martirosyan fight, but got $700K, instead. So there have been signs PBC is crumbling. I doubt he got more than $500K in the Foreman fight. So now he'd probably rather go inactive hoping a $2 mil offer will come to fruition. Fighters delaying their come back fights are sometimes rewarded in this sport. He'll soon find out it's no longer the case. Nicholas Walters found that out. These guys will end up like Quillin who hasn't been seen for 2 years now.

[Scipio2009]

Ward-Stevenson could certaily happen, but let's be honest....much of Stevenson's relevance ended with Kovalev.

That was the fight to make.

Stevenson's largely a sideshow now....a barely active champion holding a title hostage who's now a month away from turning 40.

Stevenson hardly seem vital to Ward's career.

Gvozdyk and Beterbiev are both top 5 contenders.

If the Top Rank/ESPN schedule ends up being Beterbiev-Koelling in October and Gvozdyk-Barrera in December, then either fight could produce a viable opponent for Ward next year.

Stevenson is still lineal champion and, if we're being honest here, Ward-Stevenson is the only fight where the outcome is in doubt for Ward at 175lbs (Stevenson having that Montreal money coming with him can't hurt either).

Beterbiev is still with GYM, and there's no real certainty that Gvozdyk is even ready for a guy like Barrera at this point anyway.

Ward-Stevenson is a fight that will draw Canadian PPV, interest from Sky Sports, and sizable interest from MGM Resorts; do you honestly think that Ward is swapping that out for Ward-Barrera 2, Ward-Beterbiev, or Ward-Gvozdyk on ESPN?

[Motorcity Cobra]

thats already happened. look at the shows they are putting on. all low budget shows. they had a couple big fights the entire year that were financed by showtime and other fights were financed by other promoters. people will leave if they can but it might not be so easy getting away from haymon. he prob knows how to get his hooks in legally. im sure he would rather destroy or hinder careers then let them go to places he does not want them to go. even arum let floyd leave for a small fee but hes evil?

This is simply not true. It's beyond false, it's a flat out lie. Andre Dirrell and Vanes left Haymon with not problem. Can you say the same about Floyd, Oscar, Mikey, and Chavez Jr when they tried to leave Top Rank?

[Mitchell Kane]

Valdez is contending with GRJ, LSC, Selby, Frampton, and Mares at 126, all of whom he has no access to and none of whom I'd favor him against, tbh (have admittedly not seen much of him).

Valdez's career, or at least his star power, has certainly had some arrested development due to Top Rank's inability to get him on HBO more.

It's true of a number of Top Rank fighters, but while it's not a great situation, there really aren't a lot of great situations in the division.

Gary Russell Jr. fights like once a year.

Mares hasn't fought this year, and has only fought once since the LSC fight two years ago.

LSC hasn't fought since January....and the Mares rematch didn't get done because of money and supposdly Espinoza doesn't have any interst in televising separate tune-ups.

Given all that, Top Rank should at least be able to keep Valdez active on ESPN and develop his following a bit on a bigger platform than he's sometimes been limited to. Given that he's only 26, they can take their time buildling him up.

[hectari]

All speculation but it's pointing at a multi-year big $$$$$ partnership.

UFC got $115 million a year from fox, if Top Rank can get $20-$30 million from ESPN a year that would be good for them imo. HBO last had maybe $25m-$30m budget. That's like Top Rank getting the whole HBO budget.

I don't know what type of deal they are signing but UFC was looking for $450 million a year on it's new contract. ESPN probably saw the big Pac ratings and decent Crawford ratings and is jumping on board.

I think they will announce the Pacquiao Horn rematch for ABC, Loma vs Rigo for ESPN, and a longer term contract with ESPN and possible Andre Ward signing, or something big like that Pacquiao must have a big name because they only promoted that fight for 3 days and it did 4.4 million rating, why else have a presser on the day of the fight? I remember Mayweather announcing his comeback on the day of the Pacquiao vs Hatton fight, he held a presser the same day with golden boy in vegas.

to take advantage of the huge media presence

[hectari]

This is simply not true. It's beyond false, it's a flat out lie. Andre Dirrell and Vanes left Haymon with not problem. Can you say the same about Floyd, Oscar, Mikey, and Chavez Jr when they tried to leave Top Rank?

LOL Dirrell and Vanes aint **** though, no loss on Haymons part those guys have zero fans and no drawing power.