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ITV has announced live coverage of two world title fights in January 2019 under its new deal with Haymon Sports Premier Boxing Champions [PBC].
The two major events to be shown, free to air, on ITV4 on consecutive weekends, are the first under the new deal announced last week between ITV and PBC.
Up first is on Sunday, January 13, is Jose Uzcategui defending his IBF Super Middleweight World Championship against unbeaten top challenger Caleb Plant. Coverage will come live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
The following weekend, on 19 January, ITV4’s coverage will come live from Las Vegas where Manny Pacquiao will defend his WBA world welterweight title against Adrien Broner. The exclusive ITV4 coverage will also include the much-anticipated showdown between Badou Jack and Marcus Browne for the WBA Interim Light Heavyweight title.
In the first ITV4 event, undefeated Nashville-born Caleb Plant promises to present a serious test for Venezuelan Jose Uzcategui in the latter’s first title defence. The 27-year-old champion won his title with a ninth round TKO over Andre Dirrell in March, but 26-year-old Plant has not been beaten in 17 fights with 10 knock-outs, becoming the number one contender with a unanimous decision win over Rogelio Medina.
The following week on ITV4, one of the biggest names in boxing, Manny Pacquiao steps up for the 70th fight of his career against Adrien Broner. Aged 40, Pacquiao will take on a man more than a decade his junior to defend the latest of the 11 world title belts he has held across eight divisions in his career.
Poxon Sport has been confirmed as the exclusive promoter of all UK PBC events on ITV. Richard Poxon of Poxon Sports, said: “This is an incredible opportunity for boxing and sports fans. On one hand we have a giant of UK broadcasting in ITV and on the other a giant of world boxing in Premier Boxing Champions. I’m looking forward to promoting all the fantastic PBC events in the UK on ITV. The quality of these first two free to air events should show UK fans exactly what they can expect to see over the length of this new deal, and they can expect more news in the following days about the first PBC UK boxing event.”
Last week ITV announced a ground-breaking new deal with Haymon Sports and Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) to bring exclusive coverage of exciting PBC world-class boxing events to ITV viewers and fight fans in the UK.
The unique collaboration is the first time that Haymon Sports and PBC has partnered with a UK broadcaster to stage boxing events regularly in the UK. The exclusive three-year deal will guarantee a minimum of 15 televised events each year, drawing from PBC’s unrivalled group of over 160 of the best boxers in the world, which includes more than 60 current and former world champions in matches staged both in the UK and the US. PBC, the sports’ pre-eminent boxing brand, is broadcast over cable and network television in the United States.
“This unprecedented deal between PBC and ITV is great news for boxing fans in the UK. We look forward to bringing viewers big events and superb action from some of the world’s best fighters in the coming years,” said Niall Sloane, ITV Director of Sport.
The world-class action from events for the next three years will include free-to-air broadcasts on ITV’s channels, including ITV main channel and ITV4 and ITV Hub, and will also include pay per views on ITV’s PPV channel, ITV Box Office.
This new deal for boxing adds to ITV Sport’s portfolio of first class events, which includes exclusive free to air coverage of the England football team’s qualifiers for both the European Championship and World Cup, the 6 Nations and exclusive coverage of the Rugby World Cup, UK horse racing, the Tour de France and the French Open.
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