UK pay-television broadcaster ESPN has acquired rights for events featuring the British Lionhearts team in the World Series of Boxing, an annual competition organised by the International Amateur Boxing Association, amateur boxing’s world governing body.
The deal, which covers the Lionhearts’ home bouts in the UK, starts immediately and will run for four months until the end of the series’ group stages in March 2013.
ESPN struck the deal with fight sports programme distributor Fighting Spirit, which was appointed by the IABA last month to distribute the rights to the World Series of Boxing.
The series is a city-based franchise competition in which teams compete across a series of fights in five weight classes.