After more than a year looking for a new media rights partner following the expiration of its ESPN contract, the Bob Arum-founded boxing promotion Top Rank is headed towards a new deal.
Top Rank is reportedly “finalizing” a deal with DAZN, the London-based sports streaming service, according to two reports. Initial reports of the deal by Ring Magazine have since been deleted. However, a subsequent report by Front Office Sports has confirmed that a deal between Top Rank and DAZN seems imminent.
The pending deal is seemingly a far cry from Top Rank’s prior contract with ESPN, which paid the promotion in the neighborhood of $85 million per year. Per Front Office Sports, the new deal with DAZN will see the streamer broadcast between eight and 10 fight events per year at a rate of $1-1.25 million per event.
The deal comes as DAZN has recently had “frustrations” with another promotion, Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. DAZN currently pays over $100 million per year to Matchroom for broadcast rights to its fights, yet rival promotions Riyadh Season and Ring have been “double-dipping” on Matchroom fighters including Anthony Joshua, Dmitry Bivol, Connor Benn, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, and Jai Opetaia. Per Front Office Sports, DAZN denies any frustrations with its Matchroom deal.
Either way, adding Top Rank to the fold should give DAZN some crucial inventory as it competes with the up-and-coming Zuffa Boxing, backed by UFC parent company TKO, which recently inked a deal for its fights to air on Paramount+. Netflix has also increasingly entered the boxing realm with one-off show fights that have drawn massive audiences.
Adding another interesting wrinkle to the deal, Top Rank’s CEO Arum has downplayed DAZN’s relevance to boxing in the past, calling the streamer “Dead Zone” at one point in 2022.
Given the history, it seems this is a deal that could’ve been struck more out of necessity than anything else.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.