DAZN Finalizing Multi-Year Deal With Top Rank Boxing After ESPN Exit
DAZN is finalizing a multi-year broadcasting agreement with Bob Arum's Top Rank Boxing, Front Office Sports has confirmed, with an official announcement expected later this week. The deal brings Top Rank — one of boxing's most established promotional companies — to DAZN after the promotion's exit from ESPN, where it had been broadcast for eight years. The move comes as DAZN has grown frustrated with existing partner Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing over its fighters appearing on competing Riyadh Season and Ring cards, including Anthony Joshua, Dmitry Bivol, Conor Benn, and Jai Opetaia, while Matchroom collected nine figures annually from the platform. DAZN denied tension with Matchroom and noted both sides recently signed a five-year extension through 2031, but the platform is clearly expanding its event inventory as it plays defense against Zuffa Boxing — the Saudi-TKO joint venture now competing aggressively for premium fighters. Zuffa had recently offered Benn a one-fight deal worth $15 million that Matchroom declined, signaling the scale of the poaching competition currently underway.
THE BREAKDOWN
DAZN landing both Matchroom and Top Rank dramatically increases its gravitational pull as the primary destination for boxing rights — and its appetite for exclusive high-value fighters. Top Rank's roster now has a streaming home competing directly against Zuffa's Netflix-connected pipeline and Matchroom's existing arrangement, which creates a genuine three-platform bidding environment for premium boxing talent that agents can exploit. This is the same dynamic NFL and NBA agents learned to leverage when streaming entered broadcast rights bidding: competition drives guarantees up and gives representation more room to negotiate exclusivity carve-outs and cross-promotional minimums. For agents representing Top Rank fighters specifically, the DAZN deal restores contractual platform minimums and promotional support that the post-ESPN period left uncertain. Watch whether DAZN structures co-promotional events bridging the Matchroom and Top Rank rosters — that opens cross-roster matchmaking opportunities that agents can use to push for larger cards and higher purses. The Saudi factor (Zuffa, Riyadh Season) remains the wild card: agents should be tracking which clients are in Zuffa's crosshairs, as those are the ones with immediate auction leverage.
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