Sky Sports are set to launch a channel dedicated to boxing, sources tell proboxing-fans.com.
An official announcement on this new venture from Sky Sports is imminent and could be made as early as next week.
Middleweight contender, Chris Eubank Jr who is signed to Wasserman Boxing is likely to headline the first show on the new dedicated channel on October 2 in London, sources said.
Former heavyweight world title challenger, Hughie Fury, European welterweight champion, David Avanesyan and former British cruiserweight champion, Richard Riakporhe are also in line to feature on the channel at some stage this year.
We understand a second show in Newcastle is being planned for October 16, but details for who is featuring is unknown at this stage.
Sky Sports’ exclusive deal with Matchroom Boxing in the UK and Ireland concluded in June with the promotional company signing an exclusive five-year global deal with streaming service, DAZN, ending an over eight-year partnership with Sky Sports.
Lewis Ritson’s defeat to Jeremias Nicolas Ponce in Newcastle on June 12 was the final show as part of the Matchroom-Sky Sports deal.
However, unified heavyweight world champion, Anthony Joshua was not part of that deal and his next defence against Oleksandr Usyk at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will be shown in the UK and Ireland exclusively on Sky Sports Box Office.
The leading UK broadcaster announced shortly afterwards that they had signed two new rights deals with promoters, Top Rank and BOXXER to show 18 international fight nights per year.
Sky Sports began their new partnership with Top Rank on June 12 with three consecutive shows in Las Vegas, starting with former featherweight world champion, Shakur Stevenson’s unanimous decision win over Jeremia Nakathila.
A week later unified bantamweight champion, Naoya Inoue’s third round stoppage over Michael Dasmarinas was broadcast on the platform and then three-weight world champion, Vasiliy Lomachenko’s ninth round stoppage over Masayoshi Nakatani was also shown.
Most recently, Sky Sports held rights to Manny Pacquiao’s defeat to Yordenis Ugas in their WBA welterweight title showdown last Saturday.
“We’re very excited to partner with Top Rank and BOXXER to bring more world class boxing to Sky Sports,” Sky Sports Managing Director Jonathan Licht said on their new partnerships with Top Rank and Boxxer.
“Top Rank are one of the biggest boxing promoters in the world, and our customers will now be able to see more of the world’s best boxers on Sky.”
