In what is nothing but great news for British boxing fans, Sky Sports have agreed a four-year deal to televise Top Rank cards live in the UK. After Eddie Hearn and Matchroom ended their long partnership with Sky Sports, a good many UK boxing fans wondered what Sky Sports would do as per their boxing commitment. Now we know.
Mike Coppinger broke the news regarding the four-year deal. Even better is the fact that the deal will come into effect this Saturday night, with Sky Sports to televise the Shakur Stevenson-Jeremia Nakathla. Then, big fights featuring stars such as Vasiliy Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez and Naoya Inoue will be shown live by Sky Sports.
Here is a list of the current Top Rank stable of pro fighters:
Teofimo Lopez
Terence Crawford
Josh Taylor
Naoya Inoue
Shakur Stevenson
Vasiliy Lomachenko
Artur Beterbiev
Jamel Herring
Joe Smith Jr
Jose Ramirez
Jose Pedraza
Ryota Murata
Tony Yoka
Mikaela Mayer
Michael Conlan
Miguel Berchelt
Carlos Takam
Efe Ajagba
Emanuel Navarrete
Isaac Dogboe
Previously, Top Rank cards would have been televised by ESPN alone. Again, this is great news for UK fight fans. It will be interesting to see how many viewing figures the Top Rank shows will pull in on Sky Sports, with the fights to take place in the early morning hours here in the UK. But stars like Lopez, Inoue, Crawford and others are well worth staying up for. The only downside regarding the deal is the fact that no Tyson Fury fights will be included in the deal. Fury is co-promoted by Top Rank but he has an exclusive deal with BT Sports, and this is where Fury’s fight will continue to be televised.
“The deal we have with Tyson is separate,” Frank Warren told Sportsmail. “He is co-promoted by Top Rank and with us at Queensbury in the UK where he is aligned with BT Sport. This deal with Sky is solely for Top Rank-promoted fighters. Any of Fury’s fights will be shown on BT Sport in the UK.”
Fury-Deontay Wilder III will still be a big P-P-V offering then. Right now, we UK fans can look forward to watching the gifted Shakur Stevenson in action on Saturday night.