By Norm Frauenheim –
A deal, long rumored, became official Thursday with the announcement that Amazon Prime Video and Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) have a multi-year agreement expected to begin in March.
For PBC’s roster of about 150 fighters and their fans, the announcement came as a relief, if not a lifeline, for a part of the business uncertain about its future after Showtime announced that it was leaving boxing.
Showtime’s 37-year run ends Dec. 16 with a non-pay-per-view bout featuring super-middleweight David Morrell against Sena Agbeko in Minneapolis.
According to multiple reports, the agreement includes 12-to-14 fight cards in a mix of pay-per-view and non-PPV.
As of Thursday, it wasn’t clear how the agreement might affect negotiations for high-profile bouts, including a Terence Crawford-Errol Spence welterweight rematch and Canelo Alvarez-versus-David Benavidez for Canelo’s undisputed super-middleweight title.
However, Prime Video’s 160-million subscriber base represents an opportunity.
“With Prime’s incredible reach and unprecedented marketing power, we’re very excited to reach new audiences for our sport as we continue to present the most exciting, competitive and biggest fights in boxing,” said Bruce Binkow, of Integrated Sports, a marketing agency for PBC.
Plans for a March start are intriguing. Crawford, the consensus pound-for-pound king after his singular performance in a stoppage of Spence in late July, said a few weeks ago that March was a possibility for a rematch with Spence.
Crawford told reporters in September that Spence had exercised the rematch clause in their first contract. Then, it was thought the sequel to Crawford’s ninth-round stoppage would happen in December.
But that plan was put on hold when Showtime, which carried the first fight, announced in mid-October that it would pull the plug.
Meanwhile, there’s talk that Benavidez, the World Boxing Council’s mandated 168-pound challenger after his beat-down of Demetrius Andrade Nov. 25, will fight Canelo in either May as part of the Cinco de Mayo celebration or about four months later in honor of Mexican Independence on Sept. 16.
Both would be pay-per-view bouts. There were a reported 650,000 pay-per-view customers for Crawford-Spence.
Meanwhile, Canelo is boxing’s biggest pay-per-view draw. He has slipped in the pound-for-pound debate, but his popularity is undisputed.
He is Forbes’ coverboy in the magazine’s current edition, which puts his fortune at an astonishing $275 million. Canelo has two more fights on his PBC contract.
Lords of the Flies back in AZ
The sprawling Phoenix market, known for its appreciation of the little guys since Hall of Fame junior-flyweight Michael Carbajal, will again become the site of two of today’s best next Saturday (Dec. 16) in Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez against Sunny Edwards at Desert Diamond Arena in suburban Glendale.
Both are unbeaten – Rodriguez, of San Antonio, (18-0, 11 KOs) and Edwards, of London, (20-0, 4 KOs). Both hold flyweight belts, Rodriguez the World Boxing Organization and Edwards the International Boxing Federation.
They’ll fight in the same arena where Roman Gonzalez lost the super-fly title to Juan Francisco Estrada by majority decision in a masterpiece example of skill and guts from both fighters — a year and a couple of weeks ago — Dec. 3, 2022.
Rodriguez, a dynamic mix of power and skill, is already well known to the Phoenix audience.
He upset Carlos Cuadras, winning a decision for the WBC’s version of the 112-pound title in February 2022 at Footprint Center, the Suns arena just a few blocks from where Carbajal grew up in downtown Phoenix.
Edwards-Rodriguez is intriguing, a match of contrasts between Rodriguez’ rugged power and Edwards’ elusive skillset.
Don’t expect Edwards to brawl.
“It could get me knocked out.,’’ he said during his Matchroom Face Off with Rodriguez. ”It could get me tired. It could make me lose.
“When I box, I box in a certain rhythm and a certain flow state. I’m not even trying to hurt somebody. I’ll be real, when I box there’s not one part of me and my mind that’s trying to knock somebody out. I’m there for 36 minutes.”
