Boxing: Mega-contract: DAZN secures Canelo-Fights

Golden Boy Promotions, the legendary boxing promoter, and DAZN, the worldwide live sports streaming service, announce a historic five-year global partnership that will broadcast the next 11 iconic matches of boxing superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on DAZN.

The agreement with Canelo is the highest endowed contract for an athlete in sports history and underlines DAZN’s promise to revolutionise the way fans look at sport. This deal signals the beginning of the end for Pay-per-View, which was traditionally home to the greatest boxing matches.

“We are thrilled to be the exclusive partner of Golden Boy Promotions and Oscar De La Hoya,” said John Skipper, Executive Chairman of the DAZN Group. “By bringing Canelo’s battles to DAZN, we will make his pay-per-view success a growth engine for subscribers – a moment that will change our business and the industry as a whole.”

The partnership provides for Golden Boy Promotions to host up to ten high-profile fights each year, which will be broadcast live and exclusively on DAZN worldwide in the USA, Canada, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan starting in 2019. Sports fans can follow all Canelo and Golden Boy promotions for a low monthly fee in the DAZN subscription.

“This is one of the best days in the history of Golden Boy Promotions,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “We are committed to making this sport as accessible and affordable as possible for all fans. My dream has always been to make boxing a sport for everyone. DAZN is the perfect platform to make this dream come true! Supported by the greatest star of the sport, I have no doubt that we will have unimaginable success on this journey.”

For 28-year-old Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs), the journey begins on Saturday, December 15, 2018, when he takes on the challenge of Rocky Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs) for his WBA Super Middleweight title in the legendary Madison Square Garden.

“I have always liked challenges and this is another challenger in my career,” says Canelo Alvarez. “Being part of this historic agreement means that I have to prepare even more to be able to offer even better performances to the fans. At the same time, I’m honored to have been chosen to lead this new vision for boxing that will undoubtedly benefit the fans.”

Alvarez scored the biggest victory of his career just recently in September. In an exciting majority decision he defeated Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and became WBC, WBA, “Lineal and Ring Magazine” middleweight champion. In his career with 50 victories Canelo triumphed over Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara, Austin Trout, “Sugar” Shane Mosley and others. Now Alvarez is trying to join a small and illustrious round of world champions from Mexico who won the title in three divisions by rising to 168 pounds to challenge Fielding.

The deal between DAZN and Golden Boy includes an important production element that makes Oscar De La Hoya the executive producer of the fight evenings. The live productions are a collaboration between DAZN and Golden Boy Media and Entertainment, De La Hoya’s in-house production arm, and will push the boundaries of traditional boxing shows by integrating new features with virtual graphics and extensive social media interaction.

Oscar De La Hoya’s 7,000 hour fight library, which illuminates his career as a boxer and promoter, is included in the partnership and will be available on DAZN. In addition, Golden Boy Media and Entertainment will produce numerous additional content for the DAZN platform, including live studio shows such as Between the Ropes and the award-winning Mano a Mano. De La Hoya had a vision for boxing and part of that vision are new approaches to telling the fighters’ stories to a global audience through live, scripted and social media programs. The new partnership between DAZN and Golden Boy enables this vision to flourish and stories to emerge that appeal to all people of different categories worldwide.

This announcement builds on DAZN’s already impressive boxing portfolio, which includes an agreement with Matchroom Boxing. The $1 billion deal announced in May includes 16 matches per year in the USA with some of the biggest stars of the sport in America’s best stadiums.

DAZN started more than two years ago in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan. The early successes in Europe and Asia were followed by market entries in Canada (2017), Italy (2018) and the USA (2018), where DAZN announced blockbuster deals with Matchroom Boxing and Bellator MMA in order to have a wide range of martial arts content at the time of market entry.

DAZN, part of the DAZN Group, is supported by Access Industries, whose investments in the media and entertainment sector include the Warner Music Group and Deezer.