Al Haymon Bringing Boxing to BET, Spike & NBC

Last summer I had the opportunity to interview boxing legends Sugar Ray Lenard, and Roy Jones Jr. One of the topics we spoke about was the decline in popularity boxing is facing. Both agreed that one of the reasons for the decline is that boxing is no longer in communities. The local gyms, and after school programs aren’t there.

They also mentioned a lack of exposure. There was a time when boxing was shown on network television. These days its primarily featured on pay cable channels or pay per view for the larger matches. Promoter Al Haymon has a plan to bring more boxing to TV.

Al Haymon along with his investors are essentially buying TV time on various networks to show fights under his Premiere Boxing Champions moniker. Deals have already been secured with NBC and SPIKE TV. According to ESPN, CBS Sports Net and BET will also show PBC fights.

Haymon who has 150+ boxers in his stable wants to bring boxing back to network and free cable TV.