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Add FightsATW on GoogleAmerican boxing has found itself in a peculiar position over the past 18 months—particularly when you look at its promoters. If you had to identify a single factor driving that shift, it would be the direction Top Rank has taken. The company didn’t just lose ground; it slipped from being the leader of the pack to merely blending into it.
You are probably asking yourself, How could one promotional entity have that much of an impact? Easy. Top Rank has long been regarded as the sport’s standard-bearer. And when a leader—whether in corporate America, professional sports, or even in the military—can no longer set the example, it creates immediate confusion among those who once relied on that leadership. FightsATW reached out to Top Rank to speak with a senior executive about the issue, but the request was respectfully declined.
The Arum Era
With Top Rank, founder Bob Arum was the figure everyone in the boxing business looked to—whether for a sense of what was coming next, or simply for motivation. The year 2026 marked sixty years since Arum promoted his first fight, and throughout his time as a promoter, he continually evolved. One of the earliest turning points came in April 1980, when Top Rank staged its first show on ESPN. Arum and Don King had already worked with ABC and CBS, either directly or through closed-circuit deals, but a weekly ESPN show was unique. And although King may never admit it, that move likely motivated him to pursue his own major broadcast foothold, which came six years later when HBO signed his fighter, Mike Tyson.
The ESPN partnership carried Top Rank through 1996, and after it ran its course, the company moved its major events to HBO and HBO pay-per-view. Fast forward to 2015, when Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) announced a multiyear deal with NBC Sports, which was groundbreaking at the time. PBC then added a four-year media-rights agreement with FOX Sports, positioning them well among their promoter rivals. DAZN launched the following year, in February 2016, though only in Germany, Austria, and Japan—and boxing wasn’t yet part of its catalog.
Top Rank on ESPN
Top Rank’s return to ESPN in 2017 came with a four-year multimedia deal for its shows to be broadcast in the U.S. and Canada. What made the agreement stand out was its inclusion of streaming rights on ESPN and ESPN+, a clear sign that the promotional giant was willing to evolve with the times. The deal was brokered by CAA (Creative Artists Agency), with Nick Khan—now President of WWE and a senior executive at Zuffa Boxing—at the helm. Top Rank became the first major promoter to jump into the digital era, a move soon echoed by Golden Boy Promotions on RingTV and, eventually, DAZN.
The following year, Top Rank and ESPN announced an expansion of their original deal. This time, the term stretched seven years, running through 2025, and guaranteed 54 events per year. That same year (2018), DAZN’s boxing platform launched in September with Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin, boldly declaring that pay-per-view was dead.
Fast-forward to early 2025, PBC was aligned with Prime Video, Golden Boy with DAZN, and Top Rank with ESPN. Although PBC and Golden Boy still had solid deals in place, Top Rank held the advantage. ESPN—the worldwide leader in sports—brought unmatched reach. As much as the other companies might have wanted to believe they were on equal footing, Top Rank’s deal was clearly superior, cementing its status as the premier U.S. promoter.
As the ESPN deal neared its end in the summer of 2025, industry chatter peaked that the network would not renew its deal with Top Rank. Publicly, the Top Rank brass remained optimistic, insisting they could still work something out. Internally, though, the outlook was far less hopeful, and the company knew it needed a new home.
By the end of July, the ESPN partnership officially expired. FightsATW checked in with Arum, and when asked where Top Rank would land next, he said, “Details will be announced; could be a week, or in a month.” He later added, “I think many of the promoters will be aligning with streaming services.” Boy was Arum right about that last point—something we will get into later.
Weeks passed with no deal for Top Rank. Industry insiders suggested the company was in discussions with Netflix and Warner Brothers/Discovery (WBD), with DAZN always lingering as a fallback. By September, Netflix’s attention seemed to shift toward Dana White’s UFC and Zuffa Boxing, while also pursuing a purchase of WBD. White ultimately moved to Paramount/Skydance—who then swooped in and bought WBD right out from underneath Netflix’s nose. The acquisition, initially expected to close smoothly, has since run into legal complications. From the outside looking in, that sequence of moves left Top Rank with far fewer viable options.
Top Rank’s Legal Concerns
While Top Rank continued searching for a new deal, external issues loomed that likely made securing one with an American streaming company even more difficult. In February, the New York Post reported that Top Rank and its President, Todd duBoef, were being sued for “breach of contract) by William Keane, who accused him of reaching a deal with alleged international crime boss Daniel Kinahan, who was extradited from Dubai to Ireland in August on a single charge of directing the activities of a criminal organization.
It was no coincidence that Top Rank entered Q4 2025 without a broadcast partner and had to farm out fighters to other promoters to keep them active while trimming payroll. The timing of the negative press surrounding Top Rank and duBoef—arriving just as the ESPN deal was nearing its conclusion—may have created hesitation among potential partners. Who knows? (On October 1, the motion to dismiss was denied in court.)
The end of the year arrived, and still Top Rank had no deal. Across the industry, people began to wonder whether the company—long the sport’s dominant authority—would even exist in 2026. The same questions hovered over Golden Boy, whose agreement with DAZN had expired without renewal due to complications involving their fighter, Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Top Rank Is In ‘DAZN’
Then, in March, movement finally came. Top Rank signed a non-exclusive deal with DAZN, and a week later Golden Boy secured its own agreement with the platform. PBC followed suit shortly after, signing a deal with DAZN through the end of 2025.
Although Top Rank’s deal with DAZN looked significant at the time, the conversation quickly shifted to what would happen next. The partnership kicked off in May with Keyshawn Davis vs. Nahir Albright 2. Their next show didn’t come until July 4, when Abdullah Mason faced Albert Bell. The third event of the year is scheduled for October 24, when Emanuel Navarrete faces O’Shaquie Foster—a legitimately excellent matchup. Since signing with DAZN, Top Rank has staged roughly one card per quarter while continuing to farm out fighters to other promoters’ shows.
Arum turns 95 in December, and although he still shows up to every fight, he hasn’t been running things at Top Rank for quite some time. As he once told FightsATW’s Michael Woods, they only bring him in when they need him. Over the past two years, the shift has been noticeable. It may simply be that Arum got old, and once he let go of the mantle, the company struggled to grab it—and struggled even more to run with it.
What Does The Future Hold For Top Rank?
Not being the top promoter has never been Top Rank’s identity. We are used to monthly shows, original programming, and consistent social-media support around every event. Lately, Top Rank hasn’t done any of that, raising the question of whether they’ve shifted from industry leader to just another cog in the wheel. And could the non-exclusive nature of the DAZN deal be limiting how many shows they can put on? The deal called for 8-10 events per year, yet they are only now approaching their third.
Arum said in interviews before the DAZN deal that Top Rank would ultimately have multiple streaming partners. Yet here we are, entering Q4, and no additional deals have been announced. Is this Top Rank’s new reality, or just an overreaction? And is the push to bring all major promoters under DAZN something that looks good on paper but falters in execution?
As we move toward the end of the year, the real question is whether Top Rank will evolve once again and reclaim its position at the front of the pack—or whether the company is content with its current trajectory. Is all of this pointing toward a potential sale of Top Rank? Hopefully, the coming months bring more answers than questions.
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