Spike TV to debut monthly boxing series in March
Since losing his welterweight title and undefeated record to Victor Ortiz in one of the best fights of 2011, boxing has not been terribly kind to Andre Berto.
He lost two of his next four fights and battled serious arm and shoulder injuries for much of the last three years.
But with Thursday's announcement that Spike TV and boxing mogul Al Haymon are teaming up to bring championship-caliber boxing to the cable network, things are looking up for a now healthy Berto (29-3, 22 KOs).
Berto will be a featured fighter on Spike's debut "Premier Boxing Champions," program March 13, facing Josesito Lopez (33-6, 19 KOs), with Shawn Porter (24-1-1, 15 KOs), another former welterweight titlist, fighting Roberto Garcia (36-3, 23 KOs) in the co-feature.
The new venture, which will air "Premier Boxing Champions" on Friday nights once a month, represents a new beginning for Berto, 31, who's known for putting on a show whenever he's in the ring.
"It's a great gesture to me that I'm able to be on the first (PBC) card," Berto told Paste BN Sports Thursday. "They know I'm going to put on exciting fights every time I'm in there and I try to make sure I give the people what they want to see.
"And I believe that's where (boxing is) going now. They're looking for great fights and like I said, we're opening up to (potentially) 90 million homes, so we need to capture that new audience."
For Spike TV President Kevin Kay, the multi-year deal to carry boxing is the culmination of a lifelong love affair with the sport.
"It's always been one of my goals to get boxing on Spike, and we're going to do it in a big way," Kay said Thursday. He recalled Spike's initial launch in 2003.
"The first celebrity to walk out in our up-front at The Theater at Madison Square Garden was Muhammad Ali," Kay said. "He said he thought Spike launching the first network for men was a great idea, and I was very excited about it because I could not be a bigger Ali fan. Boxing in (his) generation was like in its hey day."
Spike is best known for carrying mixed martial arts and launched the airing of Bellator programming in January 2013. It will continue that, as well as Glory Kick Boxing.
"We tried to figure out what's next," Kay said. "And boxing, we thought, would be the next thing, but we didn't find partners until now.
"We talked to everybody, but what I wanted to hear was, 'You're going to get great fights, big names, competitive fights and innovative production.' Something that looks different than it's looked for the last three decades. With (Haymon Boxing), it's what we got."
Haymon has become one of the most powerful figures in the sport, managing a huge roster of clients, including pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather and new heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder.
Haymon has been the driving force behind new boxing shows on Spike and NBC and NBC Sports Network, which debuts its own "Premier Boxing Champions" show on Saturday, March 7. Undefeated Keith Thurman faces Robert Guerrero for the WBA welterweight title, and Adrien "The Problem" Broner meets John Molina Jr. in a light-welterweight matchup. The show's host will be NBC's Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer Al Michaels.
Kay, meanwhile, hopes to bring his network's youthful demographic back to boxing.
"We have a young male audience that I think has been missing from boxing for a long time," he said. "As you know, the ratings for boxing tend to skew older. We're a young male network with the combat sports, and we have a lot of credibility. Guys count on us, and the product we put out. And I think they'll come here and check it out.
"They will get a presentation that's different, and it won't look like 1975. We have the flexibility to be a little edgier about our presentation and put some new faces on the announcing team, which we're in the process of working on right now.
"We know that the older guys like me are still there. And if we can bring the younger guys out and broaden the audience, I think we have a powerful property here."
The main carriers of boxing for decades have been premium channels HBO and Showtime, which will continue to air top matchups between some of the best fighters in the sport.
But Kay believes boxing is in dire need of programming for the masses.
"I feel like boxing has been subjugated to pay TV for a long time and there hasn't been a consistent platorm on cable TV for free fights," Kay said. " I believe we can bring a big, broad audience because we are in 98 million homes, and ... give boxing legs again. Right now I feel like it's in a bit of a rut, man.
"Everybody loves a comeback."
Also on Thursday, another top boxing promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, chairman of Golden Boy Promotions, announced that he will launch a new Spanish-language sports, travel and lifestyle cable channel called De La Hoya TV that will focus on the U.S. Hispanic market.
The new channel will offer news, analysis and original programming surrounding combat sports, including boxing and MMA, and also feature entertainment, travel, lifestyle and news on international sports.
"De La Hoya TV will be the premiere authority on boxing and other combat sports, providing fans with a behind-the-scenes look into the world and lifestyles of their favorite athletes," said De La Hoya.