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As the old saying goes, when one door closes, another opens.
The Oscar-nominated Golden Boy Promotions from La Hoya, including Canelo Alvarez, unified world champion of middleweight and biggest superstar of boxing, has long been the mainstay of HBO. But with the recent announcement of the premium cable television network, which after 45 years of fighting in most of boxing's most important fights, had been eliminated from the sport at the end of the year, they needed to A new broadcast house – and they have won a very lucrative with the new DAZN sports streaming service until 2023.
As part of a record deal that was concluded Wednesday morning, Alvarez signed with DAZN an agreement of eleven fights with a duration of five years and a minimum value $ 365 million, which was only launched in the United States in September.
He will begin his climb to the super middle to challenge Rocky Fielding, world champion, December 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York, where they will meet face to face at the press conference Wednesday afternoon.
Alvarez's deal is the richest sports contract in the history of sport, eclipsing the $ 325 million 13-year deal signed by New York Yankees hitter Giancarlo Stanton in 2014 after his time at the Miami Marlins.
"Canelo is the highest paid athlete in the world.He is extremely happy," De La Hoya told ESPN after signing Alvarez. HBO had the right to first trade and a last-minute disposition for Alvarez's fight with English Fielding (27-1, 15 KO's), and the network made a bid for a TV event at the HBO channel, but chose not to match that of DAZN. .
Although rumors that the deal was imminent have been circulating for a few days, it was not finalized until 1 am on Wednesday, when Alvarez, accompanied by manager Chepo Reynoso and coach Eddy Reynoso, signed the contract following a long meeting with De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez in a Times Square hotel in New York.
Alvarez is the biggest boxing star in the post-Floyd Mayweather / Manny Pacquiao era, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for events on HBO PPV and previously, Showtime PPV. But the move to DAZN will remove HBO PPV – where its battles cost about $ 80 each for viewers – and will place its two fights a year on the streaming service for athletes who charges $ 9.99 per month for a whole year. range of combat sports. .
When Alvarez was fighting on the pay-per-view television, he was earning money for every purchase exceeding a certain threshold beyond his guaranteed purse. But even if DAZN does not offer payment à la carte, Alvarez can still earn even more than its guarantee, according to specific subscription criteria that DAZN can reach during the transaction.
"It only comes from my hard work," Alvarez told ESPN shortly after signing the document. "The most important thing for me was to be able to give fans the opportunity to see me fight without having to pay the $ 70 or $ 80 for my TV fights." That's the most important thing, more important than what I do.
"It's very important for me to give the fans the most important fights and the most important fights, and I promise you that I will always do it." The December fight with Fielding is a dangerous fight. weight and I do not do it "I do not know what my body will feel. But I still want challenges and I am very happy that my fans can see me fight for a small fee. "
Alvarez said that he was not worried that he was moving to an untested broadcast platform.
"Never, I've never been worried because I'm very confident in myself," he said. "I know how important I am to every platform I go in. I am very grateful to HBO and Showtime for what they have done for my career, but I am happy that we are moving forward and I am can beat me on a platform. " It's the future, I've always loved challenges and it's another challenge in my career.
"Being part of this historic agreement will require me to prepare myself even more and to offer even better performances, and at the same time, I am honored to be chosen to lead this new vision of the sport of sport. boxing, which will undoubtedly benefit the fans. "
Although Alvarez is the centerpiece of the deal, De La Hoya took the opportunity to use Alvarez to secure DAZN's dates and license fees for events other than Alvarez's. The deal, for which the financial terms have not been disclosed, calls Golden Boy to hold up to 10 "high-caliber combat nights" a year that will be broadcast live on DAZN from early 2019.
These fights would include the other Golden Boy's big fighters, including junior welterweight and former 3-time world champion Jorge Linares, junior featherweight champion Rey Vargas, middleweight candidate David Lemieux, the candidate featherweight, Joseph Diaz Jr. and junior talent player, featherweight, Diego De La Hoya. as well as junior lightweight Ryan Martin and junior welterweight Vergil Ortiz Jr., two of boxing's top prospects.
"It's huge for boxing, huge for Canelo and huge for Golden Boy," said De La Hoya. "Golden Boy is at the forefront of something very monumental for the sport of boxing."
Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KO), a 28-year-old native of Mexico, won about $ 50 million for his revenge against Gennady Golovkin, who he chose to win the unified title in the middleweight over 15 September in the biggest fight of the year. Now, Alvarez will receive a well-funded DAZN fee for its events as the streaming service tries to gain market share in the US after its previous launch in Japan, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Switzerland. Canada, where Golden Boy and Alvarez fight. will also be included with subscriptions.
"It's easily one of the best days in the growing history of Golden Boy promotions," said De La Hoya. "We are determined to make this sport as accessible as possible and affordable for all fans, and my dream has been to make boxing a sport for all, and DAZN has the perfect platform to make this dream a reality. the biggest sports star at the helm of this trip, I have no doubt that we will succeed in an unimaginable way. "
When HBO announced in late September that it would stop televising boxing, De La Hoya and Gomez immediately began looking for a new home. They spoke to ESPN, Turner and Showtime, with whom they had already made an agreement and where Alvarez had his biggest fight a la carte (a defeat against Mayweather in 2013).
But about two weeks ago, De La Hoya and Gomez also met John Skipper, executive chairman of the Perform Group, DAZN's parent company in Los Angeles. De La Hoya and Skipper had known each other since Skipper was president of ESPN and Golden Boy had a limited contract for a series of boxing events on the network; and they were able to close this deal relatively quickly because De La Hoya needed a home for his fighters and Skipper, with money to spend, needed content for the new service.
"We were able to determine what Canelo is worth today and tomorrow, and we have come up with this deal," said De La Hoya.
Skipper offered his catch.
"We are excited to be exclusive partners with Golden Boy Promotions and Oscar De La Hoya," Skipper said. "By bringing Canelo's struggles to DAZN, we will turn its success into pay-per-view as a growth engine for subscribers – a real turning point for our business and the entire industry."
By signing Alvarez, DAZN is now home to the two biggest superstars in boxing, as well as the US broadcast venue for unified heavyweight title holder and British fighter Anthony Joshua. Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, signed a $ 1 billion, eight-year contract with DAZN in May to hold 16 events a year in the United States, as well as 16 per year already in the United Kingdom. This agreement began on September 22 with the defense of Joshua's title against Alexander Povetkin.
The agreement with Golden Boy will also give DAZN access to the approximately 7,000-hour Golden Boy Fighting Library, including the De La Hoya Hall of Fame career. Golden Boy Media and Entertainment will also produce a variety of shoulder programs to complement live events.
DAZN, whose other boxing property is the World Boxing Super Series and its three second season tournaments, is the latest addition to boxing, as HBO finishes its historic run.
ESPN and Top Rank recently broke a four-year contract concluded in 2017 and entered into a new seven-year contract until August 2025 which provides for the organization of 54 live boxing events each year between ESPN and ESPN +. The first boxing champions of Al Haymon recently signed a four-year rights agreement with Fox's debutant in December, as well as a new three-year contract with his longtime partner, Showtime.
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