You have to understand that interviewing a megacorporation executive today is really a completely different thing than it was 20 or even ten years ago.

The media feeds on negativity these days because, quite frankly, sensationalism, bullshit and bullshit get clicks. It is no secret that the phrase “If it bleeds, it leads” is almost mainstream now and most people reading this know that the media was targeting the man elected president in November 2016.

So a reporter probably shouldn’t get on the phone with Matt Kenny, who oversees sports at ESPN, and expect him to write down news, dishes and bomb bombs.

“We’ve seen boxing perform very well in the digital environment,” said Kenny, who has been in the role for a year and a half with the Bristol behemoth.

Especially not in the climate we find ourselves in, business-wise, economically and with national race relations after the brutalization of George Floyd caught on tape, which is reverberating with brutal force in tens of millions of minds.

And those dynamics outside of sports, of course, make live events like Tuesday night’s Top Rank boxing event from MGM in Vegas and tonight’s event at the same venue that much more welcome to fight fans.

This was actually the topic of Wednesday’s session with Kenny, a Bronx-born Los Angeles native who holds the title of vice president of programming and acquisitions at ESPN:

Let’s go back to some context for a moment. Sports have come a ridiculously long way since the recently fired World Hockey Association communications director of the Modern England Whalers and his kid Scott, along with Bill’s buddy Ed Eagan, traded their desire for the availability of more tough local sports broadcasts and bread for the purchase of the ability to operate a transponder satellite. Massive league dreamer Bill Rassmussen founded ESPN in the summer of 1978, and the world has come a long way since ESPN showed professional softball games in slow-pitch.

Such is the case with Matt Kenny and was which includes the requisite buzzwords to signal his commitment to sports BUSINESS: Kenny “leads all business activities for Combat Sports and establishes strategy to maximize audience and revenue across various platforms. Kenny also leads future rights negotiations and serves as a daily point of contact for rights holders such as UFC and Top Rank and internal stakeholders.

Kenny is one of the main people responsible for Dana White and his UFC tickets, as well as Bob Arum and company, who organize programs that air through “standard” cable and satellite broadcasters of the ESPN signal, as well as “direct to consumer”. ESPN+ option.

“I feel like I’m living a 30-30 lifestyle trying to get these live events back up and running again,” said Kenny, who has been with ESPN for 1 1/2 years.

It made sense to people who were paid to guess these things that when the coronavirus really landed and began circulating across America, combat sports, by virtue of their structure – fights are typically fought quarter by quarter – would likely be a gateway to content source for a cable/satellite/DTC giant that had to grimace when an entire professional sports league ground to a halt.

“We have a great relationship with Bob Arum and the entire Top Rank crew and have been in contact with them since day one,” continued Kenny. “We had weekly and in some cases daily phone calls.”

They were awarded by people from Top Rank and ESPN Saturday library blocks of “classic” fights, – said Kenny, and he was always checking the lay of the land as to when combat sports could return to operate in a modified form. Dana White wanted to move forward and publicly stated that he was proud to be at the front of the pack, while Arum made no secret of the fact that he did not intend to be so bold with his plans to re-enter the market.

White had his set of events, and there were certainly lessons learned from these sessions, which took place in an environment that was not of theoretical interest, but really of a diminutive cadre of epidemiologists. Arum told me within about six weeks that he was in talks with ESPN and that he would only agree to host live fights if he cooperated with the state commission and his partners at ESPN. It turns out that the Nevada commission had drafted a protocol that would be acceptable to the state, so Top Rank and the Bristol, CT-based entity then submitted the details. When will the fights take place?

Kenny and the suits at ESPN understood that in a professional sport that is almost dormant, it allows for freedom of movement. Tuesday, this day had its own history they thought it would be a good day to showcase prizefights, so they decided to take Tuesday, June 9, and then Thursday, June 11, to give the Top Rank gang some rest.

“I thought it was great,” said Kenny, who praised Arum for being ringside, wearing a mask and monitoring the return of five fights to the stage for a major league boxing promotion.

I asked Arum before Tuesday’s fights if he would be in the building. “I’ll be the ancient masked man twelve feet from the ring,” he replied. (Photo: Mikey Williams for Top Rank)

From Los Angeles, Kenny praised the work of Brad Jacobs, TV talent Joe Tessitore, Andre Ward, Tim Bradley, Mark Kriegel, Bernardo Osuna and the behind-the-scenes talent.

“Top Rank should be commended for the amount of work they did, it looked fantastic,” he said. “It really was an extremely sheltered collaboration between companies, hats off to Top Rank.”

He gave an extra tip of the hat to a segment in which Tessitore, Ward and Bradley addressed “social injustice issues.” I agreed, no smoke. Bradley’s story of how he decided to take his fancy card with his 4-year-old to a children’s school, was stopped and had to explain to the child why, this element stood out on a card that was more like “let’s remember how to ride this bike” rather than a grand celebration of class A boxing.

I asked Kenny about it; some online players complained that the matchups could and should have been tougher. The director was not willing to go into detailed section mode due to the difficulty level of Team A players: Shakur Stevenson, Jared Anderson, Guido Vianello, Robeisy Ramirez and Q Cash.

With the smoothness of production often forgetting to follow strict pandemic protocol, Kenny kept coming back to it. He stated that the number of ten people who died due to coronavirus infection was handled efficiently and wanted to commend Mike McQuade, Vice President of Production, for his commendable effort. “All of these qualities really helped the fan learn about the state of affairs in today’s society,” said Kenny. “The storytelling was fantastic.”

He liked how the ESPN staff got him to Vegas smoothly and safely, he continued, so no, he wouldn’t be talked into calling those coin-flip fights you all know I’m beating the drum for.

“We are grateful that boxing is back, full stop, tough stop,” he said. “The road to this point has been extraordinary. I couldn’t be happier. When it comes to matchmaking, Top Rank picks the matches, we stay in touch, they keep up to date with us, and we proudly produce and distribute it.”

I tried to get some tidbits on the special elements that might stand out from the event that will be shown tonight, headlined by a catchweight (128-pound maximum) bout between 27-1 Jessie Magdaleno (below) and 36-4-2 Yenifel Wincenty. This is one of four fights worth watching that will start at 7:00 PM ET in “The Bubble” in Vegas.

More content next week, which will mean that boxing will be accessible to sports fans as a whole who may not have been inclined to put boxing in their rotation.

There will be more confusion with Top Rank on June 16, June 18 and June 20.

The 16th and 18th galas return to MGM, and on June 20, Mexico will be the venue for the fight.

“We see this as the return of boxing in a substantial way and we’re proud to be on the front lines with five cards in less than two weeks,” said Kenny, a longtime ESPN fighter who worked on the 2005 ESPN PPV that headlined the Antonio Margarito fight vs. Kermit Cintron. “We hope this is the start of a great summer.”