French pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports has agreed a two-year deal with Top Rank for exclusive rights in the country to the US boxing promoter’s events.
The deal will see 26 Top Rank events broadcast each year across France until June 2022.
The first major event will take place tomorrow (Tuesday) with WBO featherweight world title-holder Shakur Stevenson taking on Felix Caraballo at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas. This will be followed by Thursday’s fight between featherweight contender Jessie Magdaleno and Yenifel Vicente.
As part of the deal, beIN will also gain access to Top Rank’s library of archive programming. Top Rank has committed to producing new events every Tuesday and Thursday throughout June and July, which will be exclusively available in France on beIN Sports.
The events can take place after Las Vegas was last month given the green light to partially resume its sports and gaming industries.
The Top Rank deal comes after beIN last week said it will undertake a reorganisation project that is expected to lead to the loss of around 20 jobs in its editorial division. The job losses come with beIN having opted to sell on its live rights to Ligue 1 from 2020-21 to 2023-24 to pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus.