The Fox Sports One schedule is rapidly filling up, and boxing is the newest addition to the slate. Fox and Golden Boy Promotions have agreed to a contract through June 2015 to air 24 Monday night boxing cards per year, with Fox paying upwards of $100,000 per show for the rights to air each event.
The first Golden Boy show on FS One will be on August 19th, just two days after the network's launch on Saturday, August 17th. The Golden Boy event will cap off the weekend launch of FS One, which will also feature a live UFC show on Saturday night from Boston, though no fights have been announced for the card yet.
Aside from Friday Night Fights on ESPN2 (which is buried at 11 PM on a Friday, hardly a great timeslot), boxing on free TV isn't something that is very common. By putting the Golden Boy events on FS One regularly, Fox is going to be able to expose boxing to an audience that may want to watch it more, but doesn't want to drop money on pay-per-view events that are centered around one fight.
It'll benefit Golden Boy too, by giving them the ability to promote their product on free TV, build up contenders, and ramp up PPV buys for a potential fight not involving a superstar, as the current landscape of boxing really only gives attention to Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. The creation of a potential superstar has happened before, like when the UFC built up guys like Rashad Evans and Jon Jones on free TV prior to thrusting them into PPV co-main events and later, main events and stardom.
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About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.