Matchroom Sport, the promotion company owned by Barry Hearn, has acquired the UK rights for the WBA super middleweight boxing title fight between Mikkel Kessler and Brian Magee on Saturday in Denmark.
The rights will be exploited on UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB, which has an exclusive arrangement with Matchroom for boxing content.
Matchroom acquired the rights from boxing promoter Sauerland Event, which is organising the bout. Sauerland is Kessler’s promoter.
Sauerland has a three-year deal, from 2011 to 2013, with pay-television broadcaster Box Nation for fights in the UK. However, Kalle Sauerland, joint owner of Sauerland Event and managing director of the German division of the Kentaro agency, told TV Sports Markets today that the agreement did not cover cards with UK fighters featured in the main events.
Kessler is a Danish fighter, but Magee is from Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.