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| Country | |
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| Availability | National |
| Owner | The Walt Disney Company (80%) Hearst Communications (20%) |
| Parent | ESPN Inc. |
Launch date | 1999 |
Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
ESPN PPV is the banner for pay-per-view events produced by ESPN. The service primarily serves as the distributor for ESPN College Extra, an out-of-market sports package that carries college basketball and football events. The service was originally launched in 1999 as ESPN Extra SkyREPORT.COM News [1] and was renamed ESPN PPV in 2001.
In March 2005, the unit broadcast its first boxing PPV, headlined by Shane Mosley vs. David Estrada. [2] ESPN's contract with the promoter Top Rank since 2017 includes the possibility of PPV events. In January 2019, ESPN announced its first Top Rank PPV, between Terence Crawford and Amir Khan for the WBO Welterweight title. [3]
Although ESPN had preferred to use its subscription streaming service ESPN+ for larger fights not on linear TV, Bob Arum stated that the fight's scale was too large to be covered by rights fees alone. [4] [5] In December 2019, it was announced that ESPN would jointly produce the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury II PPV with Fox Sports. [6]
Robert Arum is an American lawyer and boxing promoter. He is the founder and CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas. Prior to becoming a boxing promoter, Arum was employed as an attorney in the tax division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Amir Iqbal Khan is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2022. He held unified light-welterweight world championships between 2009 and 2012, including the WBA and IBF titles. At regional level, he held the Commonwealth lightweight title from 2007 to 2008. He also held the WBC Silver welterweight title from 2014 to 2016, and once challenged for the WBC and Ring magazine middleweight titles in 2016. Khan is widely regarded as one of the fastest boxers of all time.
The cable television network ESPN has occasionally broadcast boxing events over the majority of its history, as part of several arrangements, including contracts with specific promotions and consortiums such as Golden Boy Promotions, Premier Boxing Champions, and Top Rank, as well as Friday Night Fights—a semi-regular series that was broadcast by ESPN and ESPN2 from 1998 through 2015.
In Demand is an American cable television service which provides video on demand services, including pay-per-view. Comcast, Cox Communications, and Charter Communications jointly own In Demand.
Deontay Leshun Wilder is an American professional boxer. He held the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title from 2015 to 2020. By winning the title, Wilder became the first American world heavyweight champion since 2007, which was the longest period of time in boxing history without an American heavyweight champion.
Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tyson Luke Fury is a British professional boxer. He has held multiple heavyweight world titles, including unified titles from 2015 to 2016, the Ring magazine title twice between 2015 and 2022, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) title from 2020 to 2024. He also held the International Boxing Organization (IBO) title during his first reign as champion.
Errol Spence Jr. is an American professional boxer. He is a former unified champion in the welterweight division, having held the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), and International Boxing Federation (IBF) titles between 2017 and 2023. As an amateur, in the welterweight division, he won three consecutive United States national championships and represented the U.S. at the 2012 Olympics, where he reached the quarter-finals. In 2015, Spence was named Prospect of the Year by ESPN.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao, billed as the Fight of the Century or the Battle for Greatness, was a professional boxing match between undefeated five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. It took place on May 2, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. Mayweather Jr. won the contest by unanimous decision, with two judges scoring it 116–112 and the other 118–110.
Terence Allan Crawford is an American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, from lightweight to welterweight, including the undisputed championship at light welterweight and welterweight. As of May 2024, he holds the World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight titles.
Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) is an ongoing series of televised boxing events connected to manager Al Haymon.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas, billed as The Legend/The Champ, was a boxing match for the WBO welterweight championship. The event took place on November 5, 2016 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao won the fight by unanimous decision and took the WBO welterweight title. The fight sold 300,000 pay-per-view (PPV) buys in the United States (US), earning an estimated $18 million in pay-per-view revenue.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn, billed as the Battle of Brisbane, was a boxing match for the WBO welterweight championship. The event took place on July 2, 2017 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia. Horn won the fight by highly controversial unanimous decision and claimed his first world title in boxing.
Manny Pacquiao competed in professional boxing from 1995 to 2021. Regarded by boxing historians as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time, Pacquiao is the only boxer in history to win twelve major world titles in eight different weight divisions. He is also the first boxer in history to win the lineal championship in five different weight divisions, as well as being the first boxer in history to win major world titles in four of the original eight weight divisions of boxing, also known as the "glamour divisions": flyweight, featherweight, lightweight and welterweight.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Lucas Matthysse, billed as Fight of Champions, was a boxing match for the WBA (Regular) welterweight championship. The event took place on July 15, 2018 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Pacquiao won the fight by 7th-round TKO and Matthysse announced his retirement shortly thereafter.
TNT Sports Box Office is a pay-per-view channel from TNT Sports. The channel is available in HD on BT TV and Sky.
Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury was a professional boxing match contested on December 1, 2018, for the WBC Heavyweight Championship.
Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury II, billed as Unfinished Business, was a heavyweight professional boxing rematch between undefeated and reigning WBC champion Deontay Wilder and undefeated former unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, for the WBC and vacant The Ring heavyweight titles. The event took place on February 22, 2020, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada. Fury won the bout by seventh-round technical knockout (TKO).
Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter was a welterweight professional boxing match contested between WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, and two-time former welterweight champion Shawn Porter. The bout took place on November 20, 2021 at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Paradise, Nevada, U.S. 11,586 fans gathered inside the Michelob Ultra Arena in Paradise, Nevada to witness Terence Crawford vs Shawn Porter. Crawford won the bout via 10th-round technical knockout.
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Owners: Walt Disney Company (80%); Hearst Communications (20%) | |||||||||||||||||
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