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Rumors of Top Rank’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
Bob Arum’s company, perhaps the most dominant boxing promoter in the sport’s history, has secured a media rights deal with sports streaming service DAZN even as it continues negotiating a second deal that could see it return to longtime partner ESPN, sources told Fight Freaks Unite.
The DAZN deal is agreed to and expected to be signed on Tuesday with formal announcement planned for Wednesday, one of the sources said.
DAZN issued a press alert on Monday night inviting media to RSVP if interested in attending a “DAZN special event” on Wednesday morning in New York “that will feature a major announcement.” No details on what it was about or even where specifically it would take place were offered, only that “more information will be announced soon.”
However, according to the sources, it will be a news conference to announce the Top Rank deal at Madison Square Garden.
DAZN and Top Rank both declined to comment.
Top Rank has been without a media partner since the exclusive deal it signed with ESPN and kicked off with Jeff Horn’s controversial upset decision over Manny Pacquiao to win the WBO welterweight title in July 2017 in Brisbane, Australia, expired on July 31. It was common knowledge within the boxing business months earlier that ESPN did not plan to seek a renewal.
According to one of the sources, the Top Rank-DAZN conversations began in December 2024 when officials from both companies were on hand in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the heavyweight championship rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. It wasn’t a Top Rank event but the company was Fury’s co-promoter and the card was on DAZN.
Ring magazine on Monday was the first to report the Top Rank-DAZN agreement but soon after the story was posted to its website it was removed and social media posts about it were deleted. A Ring magazine official did not respond to a message from Fight Freaks Unite inquiring about why the story was taken down.
The story said that the Top Rank-DAZN 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.”
However, sources with knowledge of the deal said the number of shows in the report was incorrect and that the multi-year deal is worth more per event than Ring reported. One source made the point that many of the Top Rank titleholders have seven-figure minimum purses in their contracts, which would make it impossible for the company to put on events for that small of a license fee even with additional ticket and sponsorship revenue, considering all of the other expenses associated with a show, including the opponent and undercard.
There is no set date for the first event, the sources said, but they are looking at May or June.
Top Rank’s deal with DAZN is non-exclusive but it will mean DAZN will add Top Rank events to a menu that already includes exclusivity with two of the world’s other leading promoters, Matchroom Boxing, which finalized a five-year contract extension in February, and Queensberry, which signed a multi-year deal to move to DAZN in April 2025. DAZN also had a long-term deal with Golden Boy but it expired on Dec. 31, although they have done two one-off events and continue to discuss a new deal.
While Top Rank and DAZN have wrapped up their deal, with negotiations having intensified over the past six weeks, Top Rank remains in talks with ESPN about a possible return.
One source said that despite Top Rank’s exit from the network last July, they have remained on friendly terms and have been talking for the past couple of months through Creative Artists Agency, the same agency that negotiated on Top Rank’s behalf for the recently expired contract.
If a new deal with ESPN is made it likely will mean fewer events than the tonnage the previous agreement called for but with an emphasis on bigger fights, one source said.
Despite having no partner for the past seven months, and having put on only one show of its own — Xander Zayas’ split decision over Abass Baraou to unify junior middleweight titles in Puerto Rico on Jan. 31 — the company has managed to keep its fighters busy, paying to put prospects on a variety of smaller cards across the country. It also collaborated with longtime ally Zanfer Promotions, one of Mexico’s leading promoters, on a show and worked with Canada’s Eye of the Tiger on another. Top Rank also utilized its Top Rank Classics FAST channel to air some live events its fighters were involved in, including the Zayas-Baraou card.
For some of Top Rank’s bigger-name fighters it has made deals to have them fight on Ring magazine cards on DAZN and also did a pair of world title fights with Matchroom Boxing on DAZN: Emanuel Navarrete’s 11th-round knockout of Eduardo Nunez to unify junior lightweight titles on Feb. 28 and IBF lightweight titlist Raymond Muratalla’s majority decision over mandatory challenger Andy Cruz on Jan. 24.
Over the past seven months, Top Rank released some fighters, did not offer contract extensions to others with expiring deals, and laid off some employees, but the company remains rich with talent.
It promotes or co-promotes more current male world titleholders (10) than any other company: Christian Mbilli (super middleweight), Janibek Alimkhanuly (middleweight), Zayas (junior middleweight), Abdullah Mason (lightweight), Muratalla (lightweight), Navarrete (junior lightweight), O’Shaquie Foster (junior lightweight), Rafael Espinoza (featherweight), Bruce ‘”Shu Shu” Carrington (featherweight), and Angelo Leo (featherweight).
It also promotes several other notable fighters, including former lightweight titlist and current junior welterweight contender Keyshawn Davis; junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas, the reigning prospect of the year; former welterweight titlist Brian Norman Jr.; heavyweight up-and-comer Richard Torrez Jr.; IBF junior welterweight mandatory challenger Lindolfo Delgado; welterweight contender Rohan Polanco; and others.
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Arum photo: Mike Williams/Top Rank