| Boxing on Fox | |
|---|---|
 The logo forFox'sPremier Boxing Champions cards. | |
| Also known as | Fox Saturday Night Fights Oscar De La Hoya's Fight Night FS1 Golden Boy Live! Toe-to-Toe Tuesdays FX FX Championship Boxing SportsChannel / Prime / FSN Pro Boxing Tour Budwesier Championship Boxing MSG Fight Night Fight Night at the Forum Sunday Night Fights Fight Time on Fox Best Damn Fight Night Period Best Damn Boxing Championship Period |
| Genre | Professional boxing bouts |
| Presented by | Kenny Albert Heidi Androl Ray Flores Joe Goossen Larry Hazzard Lennox Lewis Ray Mancini Chris Myers |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | Various |
| Production companies | Fox Sports Premier Boxing Champions |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox Fox Sports 1 Fox Deportes |
| Release | October 16, 1995 (1995-10-16) – October 15, 2022 (2022-10-15) |
Boxing on Fox refers to a series ofboxing events produced byFox Sports and televised by theFox Broadcasting Company andFox Sports 1.
Fox's first foray into boxing aired on December 16, 1995[1] inprime time headlined by about[2] betweenMike Tyson andBuster Mathis Jr.
On September 14, Tyson promoterDon King would stun the boxing world by announcing that the Tyson–Mathis match would be broadcast for free onFox.[3] Three weeks before the fight, Tyson suffered a broken thumb, but did not announce it until November 1, three days before the fight. In a press conference at theMGM Grand, Tyson announced the cancellation of the fight because of the injury.[4] Then, on November 22, it was announced that the bout had been moved toAtlantic City with a December 16 date in place and thatShowtime would air the fight instead of Fox.[5] Plans were changed after New Jersey gaming authorities ruled against having the fight in Atlantic City because Don King had been under suspension in New Jersey since 1994 because of legal troubles. On November 30,Philadelphia'sCoreStates Spectrum was announced to host the fight with Fox regaining the rights to air it.[6]
The opening match on the card involvedTerry Norris andPaul Vaden.[7] Also featured wasFrankie Randall defending hisWorld Boxing Association junior welterweight title againstJuan Coggi.[8]
Kevin Harlan providedblow-by-blow commentary, withSean O'Grady andBobby Czyz on analysis,[9] andJames Brown[10] as the host. Meanwhile, Fox's then leadNFL color commentator,John Madden[11] conducted a taped interview with Tyson. Madden'sNFL on Fox broadcast partner,Pat Summerall was initially scheduled to call the card, but when it was pushed back from November 4 to December 16, his NFL duties interfered with him participating.
Fox received a 16.9Nielsen overnight rating and 29 share for the December 16 broadcast, making it the highest-rated night in Fox's then brief history as a network.
In March 1998, Fox teamed withOscar De La Hoya for a three-fight card[12] fromMashantucket, Connecticut inprime time. Since De La Hoya himself, was under contract to fight exclusively onHBO, he couldn't fight. Instead, the card featuredYory Boy Campas fighting Anthony Stephens in a junior middleweight title bout,Eric "Butterbean" Esch in a super heavyweight fight against Bill Eaton, and a six-round women's match betweenLucia Rijker andMary Ann Almager.[13][14] The card aired directly against the70th Academy Awards onABC.
James Brown called the action withGil Clancy on analysis andSean O'Grady reporting. The telecast garnered Fox a 4.3rating (5.9 million viewers).[15]
The March 20, 1998 event wouldn't be the last time that Fox would collaborate with Oscar De La Hoya. In April 2012, Fox reached a multi-year agreement[16] with De La Hoya'sGolden Boy Promotions.[17] Under terms of the agreement Golden Boy Promotions would stage one event per month in the United States to be simulcast onFox Deportes,Fox Sports' regional networks andFuel TV.
One year later, Fox announced that they had reached a multi-media rights extension[18] with Golden Boy Promotions. Under this particular agreement, Fox Sports retained exclusive domestic rights to 48 live two-hour events (featuring two or three fights per event).Fox Sports 1 scheduled 24 live events per year, withFox Deportes airing all 48 events live. This was an increase from 36 in the previous deal. The 24 events on FS1 would all originate in the United States, and most were expected to run on Monday nights[19] once the network launched later that August.
On August 4, 2015,Fox Sports 1 announced that it would air 21PBC cards on Tuesday nights (Toe-to-Toe Tuesdays) on the network from September 8, 2015 through June 2016. The telecasts were also simulcast in Spanish byFox Deportes. The announcement came following the end of a contract between Fox Sports andGolden Boy Promotions.[26]
By 2018, most of PBC's broadcasting agreements lapsed. In September 2018, PBC reached a four-year deal with Fox Sports, covering a series of 10 "marquee" cards per-year on the Fox broadcast network, 12 per-year on FS1, as well as Fox-producedpay-per-view events. Unlike the previous time-buy arrangements, Fox is paying rights fees;The Ring reported that Fox was paying $60 million per-year. Prior to the announcement, PBC reached a long-term deal with Showtime, through 2021. Both Fox and Showtime also began producing pay-per-view events (contrary to PBC's previous aversion to them).[27][28][29]
Meanwhile,Fox Deportes tappedInternational Boxing Hall of Fame member and former four-division world championErik “El Terrible” Morales to work alongside Jaime Motta (blow-by-blow) andJessi Losada.
