The boxing world was hit with big news early Monday morning as Top Rank finally secured a media-rights partnership with DAZN, making the streaming platform the true home of boxing.
It’s been a little over seven months since Top Rank’s deal with ESPN expired, and for a while, things seemed uncertain. While many fans expressed concern on social media, there was never any doubt that Top Rank, which has been around for 53 years and is led by co-founder Bob Arum, would find a new platform. It was just a matter of where Top Rank would land, and which option would offer the best financial benefits.
There were rumors swirling about interested parties like Netflix, Warner Bros./Discovery (WBD), and DAZN, all in the mix to partner with Top Rank. With the fiasco between Netflix, Paramount+, and WBD in the last few months over the sale and purchase of WBD, there was a lot of uncertainty. Normally, companies don’t make big acquisitions during a merger because things tend to change once the sale is complete and departments begin to consolidate.
When the dust settled, DAZN emerged as Top Rank’s new partner, and the announcement will be made on Wednesday in NYC.
The Devil Is In The Details But Does It Matter?
When the original story was published by Keith Idec for Ring Magazine, it spread quickly and soon was everywhere. The news reported that it was a “multi-year deal” which would include “8-10 shows per year with license fees ranging from 1 million to 1.25 million per show.” After everyone, especially on the East Coast, saw the news, the post was removed from the Ring Magazine website. When those on the West Coast woke up, the story was gone.
Around the same time the Ring story was deleted, Declan Warrington and Lance Pugmire of Boxing Scene published a joint story stating that “a multi-year contract potentially encompassing in the region of 10-12 promotions a year” was signed and that “They expect the full financial support to make the fights they intend, and also to have the option of staging promotions on DAZN’s pay-per-view model.” They also mentioned that the first card could be as early as “May or June.”
After this article started circulating, there was a lot of chatter suggesting that the budget per fight in the Ring article was lower than the actual numbers in the deal, which are rumored to be twice what was originally reported. A source told FightsATW that the truth is probably somewhere between the Ring story and Boxing Scene’s.
Here’s the thing: does the budget per show really matter? The only parties that should care about this are the fighters, their representatives, and Top Rank. The main point is that Top Rank is back, and they no longer need to send their fights to other promoters just to stay busy. We’re now back to Top Rank hosting events again, which is great for the fighters on its roster.
This Is A Hard Reset & More To Come
During the period when Top Rank was without a deal, they still paid their staff, but those on a show-to-show basis had to look for work elsewhere. Eventually, while still waiting to secure a deal, Top Rank had to start trimming staff and allowed some of their deals with fighters to expire, especially because their future was uncertain and they didn’t want to hold anyone back.
In a way, this was the hard reset that many in the industry have said Top Rank needed after working under ESPN all those years. During their time at ESPN, it seemed like Top Rank got comfortable, which happens often in business when you successfully run a company and it’s on autopilot year after year.
Now, Top Rank has an opportunity to start fresh, rebuild the inventory they lost, and move forward with the fighters they currently have signed, such as Xander Zayas, Emanuel Navarrete, Bruce Carrington, Abdullah Mason, Keyshawn Davis, and others.
With this hard reset and the new deal with DAZN that isn’t exclusive, Top Rank may now be in a position to secure another deal. Combined with the DAZN deal, this could bring them close to their previous yearly budget with ESPN. Multiple sources have told FightsATW that Top Rank could potentially sign another deal in the coming weeks. That aligns with the official sale date of WBD to Paramount+, which could be where Top Rank still lands. The question is whether Paramount+ would be willing to have Top Rank on a WBD platform, given their strong involvement with the UFC and Zuffa Boxing. WBD has many networks that could air a boxing show, so it’s worth monitoring.
Exclusive: Bob Arum Anticipates ‘Robust’ Programming Starting Sept & ‘Up To 40 Events’
Will Xander Zayas vs Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Kickoff The New DAZN Deal?
In recent days, rumors have started circulating that Xander Zayas and Jaron Ennis are in early talks for a fight this summer. I tweeted that if it gets finalized, it should take place in the main arena at Madison Square Garden in NYC during the Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend in June.
Ennis can fill an arena, and Philadelphia isn’t that far from New York, so with him and the Puerto Rican fans in NY, they can get 20,000 in the building. It would be a huge fight and help fans get over the fact that Ennis won’t be fighting Vergil Ortiz Jr. next. If you want to start with a bang, that’s the fight to make, and you can put Josh Kelly as the co-main event with the winners fighting then for three belts at 154 in the fall.
“Old School Baby…Old School”
Although Arum has stayed quiet these past few months, there’s no doubt he was working behind the scenes to secure this DAZN deal and any future ones. Arum comes from a generation where patience is a virtue, and he doesn’t have to do anything on anyone’s timetable but his own. As they say in many old-school movies, “I’ll do it when I’m good and ready.” Arum followed that principle and secured the upcoming years for his company. Welcome back, Top Rank.
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