Earlier this month, we told you that ESPN was about to pick up Top Rank Boxing as a partner. ESPN has now confirmed that it will air two Top Rank cards in August, one in Los Angeles on August 5 and another in Lincoln, Nebraska on August 19. This is in addition to the Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn fight in Brisbane, Australia this week.
This expands ESPN’s boxing portfolio. It had signed a deal with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Boxing earlier this year. And it provides boxing fans with more cards throughout the year.
Overall, seven Top Rank cards will air on ESPN/ABC and another 18 will air on the combo next year.
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The August 5 card will involve WBO Junior Lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko fighting Miguel Marriaga at the Microsoft Theater in Los Anglees.
Then on August 19, WBC/WBO Light Welterweight champ Terence Crawford will fight IBF/WBA champion Julius Indongo at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, NE.
Both events will air live at 10 p.m. ET and be simulcast on ESPN Deportes and stream on the WatchESPN app.
The Crawford-Indongo bout has the potential to be one of the fights of the year and for this to be on basic cable rather than pay cable will open up the card to a wider audience. Had Top Rank remained with HBO, the audience to watch the fight would have much smaller as opposed to being on ESPN.
With three Top Rank cards scheduled over the next two months as well as four Golden Boy cards in that same time frame, there’s going be plenty of boxing on ESPN this summer.
