Top Rank Reaches Deal With DAZN To Stream 8-10 Cards Per Year
Top Rank’s search for a new streaming partner has finally come to an acceptable conclusion for those that run Bob Arum’s promotional company.
The Ring has learned that Top Rank and DAZN have reached an agreement on a multiyear partnership that will be announced this week. The deal will provide Top Rank with between eight and 10 dates per year and will pay license fees between $1 million and $1.25 million per event.
Top Rank and DAZN executives have discussed parameters for a potential deal for over a year, well before Top Rank’s exclusive eight-year contract with ESPN ended with its July 26 broadcast from The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Top Rank president Todd duBoef discussed potential partnerships with other streamers, most notably HBO Max, before the DAZN deal was struck.
Though this long-rumored deal won’t afford Top Rank with nearly as big a budget as it had with ESPN, it’ll allow one of boxing’s most prominent promoters of the past 50 years to stage more shows than it has over the past 7½ months. Top Rank will maintain the flexibility as well to showcase its fighters on higher-profile DAZN cards sponsored by Riyadh Season and The Ring, similar to how Teofimo Lopez, Keyshawn Davis and Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington competed on “The Ring 6” card January 31 at Madison Square Garden.
Top Rank’s roster remains perhaps the deepest in boxing.
In addition to Lopez, Davis and Carrington, those under contract with Top Rank include WBO middleweight champ Janibek Alimkhanuly, WBA/WBO junior middleweight champ Xander Zayas, WBO lightweight champ Abdullah Mason, IBF lightweight champ Raymond Muratalla, IBF/WBO junior lightweight champ Emanuel Navarrete, WBC super featherweight champ O’Shaquie Foster, WBO featherweight champ Rafael Espinoza, former WBO welterweight champ Brian Norman Jr., former WBC super featherweight champ Robson Conceicao, heavyweight contenders Richard Torrez Jr. and Jared Anderson, welterweight contenders Delante “Tiger” Johnson and Rohan Polanco, and rising junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas, The Ring’s “Prospect of the Year” for 2025.
Before this deal was finalized, Top Rank and ESPN executives explored the possibility of reuniting on a smaller scale than their previous partnership.
ESPN paid Top Rank approximately $90 million annually for a minimum of 30 shows spread across its flagship linear television channel and ESPN+, the network’s expansive streaming service. Roughly $84 million of that annual budget was earmarked for license fees, whereas about $6 million covered production costs.
ESPN and Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions announced a deal March 6, but adding Top Rank as a promotional partner further solidified DAZN’s top position in the market.
The streaming service owned by billionaire Len Blavatnik already offers more live boxing events than any broadcaster or streaming service in the world and has exclusive content agreements with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and Frank–Warren’s Queensberry Promotions. Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions has been a longtime partner as well, but it doesn’t have a long-term commitment from DAZN at the moment.
DAZN also streams most of The Ring’s events as part of its monthly Ultimate Plan, which includes all pay-per-view events for $44.95 in the United States and £24.95 in the United Kingdom.
Bob Arum's Top Rank and DAZN have reached an agreement on a multi-year broadcast partnership that will be announced this week, The Ring has learned.