BoxRec

Eddie has been hinting for months now he plans to expand the Matchroom brand into America. He’s also been tweeting recently about visits to New York being fruitful in regards to reaching out to other promoters / broadcasters stateside.

Yesterday in New York NBC confirmed that it had entered into a multiyear agreement with Haymon Boxing and will televise the first 20 cards this year. The series, titled "Premier Boxing Champions" -- "PBC on NBC" as executives are calling it -- will include five cards on NBC on Saturday nights, six on NBC on Saturday afternoons and the remaining nine in prime time on NBC Sports Network.

NBC confirmed the series will kick off March 7 (9 pm ET) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with interim welterweight titlist Keith Thurman (24-0, 21 KOs) facing former two-division titleholder Robert Guerrero. This got me thinking about the 6 shows that will be broadcast on Saturday afternoons, and what time they will start locally in America i.e. 5pm ET? If it’s 5pm then these shows would make prime time viewing here in the UK starting at 10pm. It’s this that has me wondering if Eddie has done a deal with NBC and Haymon. Surely SKY would be very interested in big American shows, starting at 10pm, featuring Matchroom fighters. Plus none of these fights will be covered by the deal B0xnati0n have with Top Rank and Golden Boy.

I dunno, but I do know Haymon is working with another Brit, Alex Balfour.

Balfour is a digital content man, he oversaw delivery of the Olympics to about 130 countries, the websites and feeds etc.

Perhaps he is going to link up the shows in the Europe and beam them to American audiences ?

I was hoping that allegedly would do a deal with haymon

G0mez wrote:I dunno, but I do know Haymon is working with another Brit, Alex Balfour.

Balfour is a digital content man, he oversaw delivery of the Olympics to about 130 countries, the websites and feeds etc.

Perhaps he is going to link up the shows in the Europe and beam them to American audiences ?

Or he's working on streaming some of the fights via the Matchroom Fight Pass?

vegas is 8 hrs behind so we have no chance of watching them our primetime

sweetscience wrote:vegas is 8 hrs behind so we have no chance of watching them our primetime

It all depends where the fight is coming from. Steve Cunningham Vs. Tyson Fury was an afternoon NBC broadcast live from New York. The fight was shown on Channel 5 here with the main event starting at 9:45pm our time, if my memory serves me correctly.

by them .. I meant the Vegas cards

they aren't going to fight in the morning to cater for a few thousand diehard brits

I just hope sky or allegedly can do a deal to show all 20 cards as there's some good fights being made. Eddie has recently done a deal to show sauerland cards on fight pass. So more and more boxing is available to watch in the uk.

To answer the threat title No.

Hearn often returns from the states with promises of big news and has so far delivered zilch.
Al Haymon is not his mate, he is a ruthless businessman who will sell to the highest bidder whilst ensuring he is in control at all times...I can see Warrren picking up some cards, sky picking up some cards, possible fight pass picking up smaller stuff and the odd fight not being picked up at all...which is pretty much what happens today.

chad wrote:

G0mez wrote:I dunno, but I do know Haymon is working with another Brit, Alex Balfour.

Balfour is a digital content man, he oversaw delivery of the Olympics to about 130 countries, the websites and feeds etc.

Perhaps he is going to link up the shows in the Europe and beam them to American audiences ?

Or he's working on streaming some of the fights via the Matchroom Fight Pass?

A brief glance at his CV (thanks linkedin) suggests he's probably on board for something significant, and gomez knows his tech so is probably right with his assumption.

I'm interested to see how this all plays out. Haymon's long term strategy must be a PPV model of sorts (perhaps web based) otherwise I don't see where he makes his money on the NBC venture (he paid them 20mil didn't he?).

With ROC Nation sports now signing Ward and staging their first show recently, its an interesting time in the states.