Six weeks ago, the state of the boxing broadcast ecosystem was truly alarming. Top Rank had no television contract. Golden Boy’s contract with DAZN has expired. PBC limped along with a handful of Prime Video paid views. The only promotions with robust long-term TV networks were Matchroom, Queensberry and the fresh kid on the block in Zuffa Boxing. ESPN has completely moved away from sports. The business side of boxing seemed to be collapsing in real time.
Today the picture looks completely different. Not perfect. But alive.
Scorecard
Matchroom Boxing has a five-year extension with DAZN until 2031, announced in February. Thirty events per year. Eddie Hearn isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the deepest squad in the sport – Anthony Joshua, Dmitry Bivol, Jesse Rodriguez, Jaron Ennis, Katie Taylor, Dalton Smith and the rest.
Zuffa Boxing has a five-year contract with Paramount+ in the US, reportedly worth $100 million a year, and has just announced a multi-year broadcast deal with Heavenly sports for the UK and Ireland – confirming that Sky is the broadcaster of all Zuffa events involving at least five cards per year in the UK. Say what you will about Dana White’s entry into boxing, but this is real money and real distribution on both sides of the Atlantic. Paramount+ is also keeping UFC in a separate $7.7 billion deal, which means combat sports fans already have a reason to subscribe. Zuffa’s inaugural Paramount+ card launched in January, and the promotion crowned its first champion when Jai Opetaia dominated Brandon Glanton on March 8, and now has a British TV network that gives it a eternal presence in Europe’s largest boxing market.
Top Rank and DAZN announced their multi-year deal today. Bob Arum’s entire squad – Xander Zayas, Keyshawn Davis, Abdullah Mason, Emanuel Navarrete, Raymond Muratalla, Bruce Carrington and the entire pipeline – now competes on the same platform as Matchroom and Queensberry. It is accompanied by an archive of six decades. Dan Rafael reported that Top Rank is also negotiating a second deal that could bring back the ESPN business, which would give Arum the multi-outlet model he had been pushing for before ESPN’s departure.
PBC remains on Amazon Prime Video with five to six shows a year, mostly on pay-per-view for $79.99 each. It’s not a huge game and it’s not inexpensive for fans, but Sebastian Fundora’s March 28 defense of his WBC junior middleweight title against Keith Thurman is legitimate, and there are still names on the PBC roster that are moving the needle. With PBC, it was never about talent – it was always about availability.
Most Valuable Promotions launched MVPW, a platform dedicated to women’s boxing, and signed a multi-year deal with ESPN through 2028. Credit to that – Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian saw a gap and filled it. Over 40 players have contracts. Caroline Dubois vs. Terri Harper on April 5 in London. Alycia Baumgardner vs. Bo Mi Re Shin at Madison Square Garden Theater on April 17. ESPN is bringing boxing back to the airwaves, even if it’s women-only for now, thanks to MVP. These are real fights with real world titles on the line, not exhibitions.
That leaves the Golden Boy. Oscar De La Hoya’s contract with DAZN expired at the end of 2025 and has not been formally extended yet. Golden Boy actually moved forward with a one-off event on DAZN on March 14, headlined by the Arnold Barboza Jr. fight. vs. Kenneth Sims Jr. at the Honda Center, and De La Hoya has said publicly that he is working on a fresh, long-term extension. Golden Boy has players people want to watch – Vergil Ortiz Jr., Oscar Collazo, Seniesa Estrada – and the sport is better when they have a stable home. But until pen touches paper, it is the only obvious hole in the landscape.
What does it mean
DAZN now includes Matchroom, Queensberry, Golden Boy (at least in practice) and Top Rank. This is an extraordinary concentration of talent on one platform. The promise of this consolidation has always been plain: if everyone is on the same network, network policies that prevent the best from fighting the best should disappear. Matchroom players can compete with top-class players. The boys from Queensberry can take on the boys from Golden Boy. The fights that fans have been clamoring for have become logistically possible in a way that hasn’t been the case for years.
Whether it will actually look like this is another matter. Promoters remain promoters. They still have their own financial incentives, their own relationships, their own egos. Being on the same platform doesn’t automatically mean that the Vergil Ortiz vs. Jaron Ennis fight will take place tomorrow. But it removes one of the biggest structural barriers. It matters.
Another thing worth noting is that there is real cross-platform competition in boxing right now. DAZN dominates the classic promotion model. Paramount+ and Sky Sports support the Zuffa rebellion on both sides of the Atlantic. Amazon runs PBC. Netflix is getting into spectacular events. ESPN returns with its Women’s MVP series. This kind of competitive tension is vigorous for the sport because it forces everyone to deliver better content, better production, and better fights.
It is also worth noting that Saudi Arabia’s investments touch both sides of the divide. SURJ Sports, backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, has a significant stake in DAZN. Sela, a Saudi entertainment conglomerate, is a joint venture partner financing Zuffa Boxing. Turki Alalshikh’s season cards in Riyad are broadcast on DAZN, and his contacts also run through the Zuffa structure. This is not a criticism – it is a reflection of how deeply Saudi capital is now embedded in the sports infrastructure. Growth is real. The investment changed its face. However, anyone paying attention to the business side of boxing should understand that the cross-platform competitive landscape is more intertwined at the ownership level than it may seem.
Six weeks ago, it seemed like the sport was running out of places to put its product. Today, every major promotion except Golden Boy has a confirmed broadcaster, ESPN is back in the boxing industry, and DAZN is closer to a one-stop shop for the sport than any platform since HBO-Showtime. The landscape is not perfect. But for the first time in a while, it looks like this is a sport with a real future.
If Golden Boy can make it to the finish line with DAZN, the picture will be almost ready.
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