Matchroom Sport and Sky Sports have extended their partnership to offer viewers an unrivalled choice of fights and fighters, with 20 shows a season for two further years.
The agreement, commencing in June 2014, will bring even more exclusive live coverage of Matchroom Sport and Eddie Hearn’s stable of World champions and British stars on a domestic and international stage.
There’s World title action for Carl Froch, Ricky Burns, Darren Barker, Scot Quigg, Tony Bellew and Kell Brook, with fellow British stars Kell Brook, Kevin Mitchell, Lee Selby and Anthony Crolla all on the cusp of major fights.
Young guns Callum Smith, Kal Yafai, Scotty Cardle and Thomas Stalker breaking through to title action and Olympic Gold medal heroes Anthony Joshua MBE and Luke Campbell MBE starting their pro journeys. Plus the big fights from America with Miguel Cotto, Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Gennady Golovkin, Mike Alvarado and Ruslan Provodnikov all set to star before Christmas.
Matchroom Sport Managing Director Eddie Hearn said: “I’m delighted to announce a new two-year extension to our existing contract with Sky Sports which will see us as the principle promoter on the channel to summer 2016. We have developed one of the strongest stables ever seen in world boxing and the extension gives us the perfect platform to grow our team and provide them all with the ultimate opportunity to achieve within the sport.
“Sky shares our passion and vision for the sport and is a perfect partner as we look to grow boxing significantly over the next few years. It’s exciting times for an exciting sport and we have some mouth-watering plans to share with Sky Sports viewers.”
Executive Producer of boxing at Sky Sports Adam Smith said: “From the high drama of live Fight Nights to our extensive support programming like Ringside, Behind The Ropes and The Gloves Are Off, plus our huge commitment to online content, we are confident fight fans will continue to enjoy the very best quality, innovation and excitement on Sky Sports.”
Coming up before the end of 2013 there’s a thrilling line-up of action on Sky Sports:
• Quigg takes on Yoandris Salinas tomorrow (5 October) for the WBA Super-Bantamweight title at The O2 which will also see Joshua make his hotly-anticipated pro debut, then in Florida, three-weight World champion Miguel Cotto faces Devlin Rodriguez.
• Las Vegas is the destination on 12 October for the clash between unbeaten WBO Welterweight king Timothy Bradley and Mexican four-weight World champion Juan Manuel Marquez, whilst Orlando Cruz and Orlando Salido battle for the vacant WBO Featherweight title.
• Mike Alvarado defends his WBO Light-Welterweight title against exciting Russian Ruslan Provodnikov in Denver on 19 October.
• Unbeaten Welterweight star Brook tackles Vyacheslav Senchenko in Sheffield on 26 October in a huge test of the Steel City man’s World title credentials, with Blackpool’s Brian Rose in a WBO Light-Middleweight World title eliminator against Javier Maciel.
• Luke Campbell MBE fights in his hometown of Hull for the second time on November 2, before fearsome WBA and IBO Middleweight KO king Gennady Golovkin defends his belts against Curtis Stevens in New York.
• World champion Froch and challenger Groves clash on 23 November for The Cobra’s WBA and IBF Super-Middleweight titles live on Sky Sports Box Office.
• Tony Bellew heads to Canada to challenge the exciting Adonis Stevenson for the WBC Light-Heavyweight crown.
• Darren Barker wraps up a stellar year of boxing on Sky Sports when he defends his IBF Middleweight belt against Felix Sturm on 7 December.
Sky Sports viewers can follow boxing news, enjoy exclusive interviews with special guests and debate hot topics with weekly magazine show Ringside. Sky Sports News brings breaking news from the world of boxing plus topical analysis from top experts and those close to the fighters. Additional interviews and blogs from our experts including former World Cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson are also available on skysports.com.
