Where's Big Al Haymon?
Media executives & insiders want to know where boxing's invisible ghost is.
Is boxing’s former king still in the business — or is he out?
With Top Rank Boxing’s ESPN deal expiring, network executives interested in combat sports programming have some real questions. So do we.
Two years ago, Al Haymon and Stephen Espinoza were busy promoting three $20+ million dollar gates for Showtime Sports in Las Vegas. Mr. Espinoza’s barbs towards UFC President Dana White drove Zuffa’s big man nuts. Nobody celebrated the end of Showtime Boxing more than Dana.
Two years later, both men find themselves in an intriguing position. We’re not the only ones interested in this development. Major sports media executives are paying close attention.
Dana White, Brand Ambassador, finds himself along for the ride with Nick Khan and Turki Alalshikh under the Zuffa Boxing banner. Supposedly, Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford will happen in Las Vegas on September 13th. We still don’t know the venue. If you believe Oscar De La Hoya’s latest rant, we don’t even know if that fight will happen in the afternoon or evening. We’re three months from showtime.
At least Canelo vs. Crawford is on Netflix, although we don’t know how much Netflix is paying for rights to broadcast the fight worldwide.
Meanwhile, Stephen Espinoza finds himself in a curious position with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions promotional banner.
Recent PBC fights have been streaming on Amazon Prime. Charitably speaking, let’s say that the jury is still out on how that venture is working out. The quality of fights and production values have not been at previous Haymon-level standards.
Despite PBC’s recent turmoil, the promotion still has a strong brand value. And that’s something to pay attention to as you constantly read article after article gossiping about TKO media rights for boxing, UFC, and wrestling programming.
One of the intriguing players in 2025? ESPN. Who knew?
ESPN cleared the decks with its exit from Top Rank. They clearly want a piece of the upcoming UFC media rights package. It’s our educated opinion that if Nick Khan was in charge of negotiating UFC media rights, he likely would have gotten some sort of deal done. Instead, Mark “Cost Savings” Shapiro is in charge, and he thinks he has the leverage.
Meanwhile, ESPN wants more than just UFC programming. They want more fight content. The question is how much they have to pay and how many shows they can get in return. There are two specific time tracks to pay attention to.
First, ESPN wants immediate inventory to fill out programming schedules. However, various industry sources on background are claiming that, behind the scenes, Disney isn’t prepared to open up the checkbook to pay for time slots immediately. If you can bring sponsors to the table or pay for programming, ESPN can open up time slots real fast for you.
Second, ESPN wants to build a real fight portfolio for the 2026 campaign. A key industry source, on background, has told The MMA Draw that Disney would like to have a piece of the action for boxing, UFC, and some wrestling-related content. Despite a seemingly hard cap on weekly hardcore customer numbers, wrestling programming drives traffic and action to big media platforms.
One of the promotional players ESPN executives are very curious about is PBC.
A PBC/ESPN marriage makes sense on a lot of levels.
But there’s a catch: there are three big mysteries right now about PBC that have media executives scratching their heads as to what they would be getting into if they sign an extensive deal with PBC for club shows & mid-major fights.