The fight will be shown live on a pay-per-view basis on the Perform Group agency’s www.omnisport.tv website. The fight will be the biggest-ever UK-focused event shown on the site, which also carries exclusive coverage of Italian Serie A football.
Hennessey turned to Perform after ITV and pay-broadcasters BSkyB and Setanta all refused to meet his asking price, which is understood to have started at over £1 million and fell progressively to below £500,000.
The fight was not covered by the two-year, 26-fight deal ITV agreed with Hennessey last September and its 3am start time meant it made little sense for the commercial broadcaster. BSkyB and Setanta, meanwhile, were not expecting a Hennessey fight to come on the market, given the promoter’s link with ITV, and had already committed their boxing budgets.
ITV will show delayed coverage of the fight at 8.30pm on Sunday on digital channel ITV4, repeated on its national ITV1 channel at 11.15pm