One Year on and Boxnation gets Bigger and Better

ONE YEAR ON AND BOXNATION GETS BIGGER AND BETTER

BoxNation’s first year on air and the fight dedicated subscription channel has become The Home of TV Boxing.

In a ground-breaking year BoxNation has televised:

50 LIVE World Title Fights

Over 75 LIVE shows

Over 130 LIVE title fights

Over 1600 rounds of LIVE boxing

BoxNation has featured the best boxers and fight action from around the world, including the pound-for-pound best Floyd Mayweather Jnr. against Miguel Cotto, plus Cotto avenging his loss to Antonio Margarito; the controversial first fight and rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson; Mexican star and Son of the Legend Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. against Marco Antonio Rubio and Andy Lee; heavyweight kings the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladmir, defended their world titles; plus fast rising world star Adrien Broner showed his potential as future great.

At home, BoxNation made its debut with a thrilling fight between super-featherweights Liam Walsh and Paul Appleby in a small hall classic that was later named one of the fights of the year.

Viewers’ then saw WBO World Lightweight Champion Ricky Burns cement his place amongst the greats of Scottish boxing to become the first two-weight world champion in almost 20 years by dominating the world class Michael Katsidis.  Burns then made a hero’s return to Glasgow to Scotland to defend his title in front of sold out crowd against former world champion Paulus Moses.

WBO World Light-Heavyweight Champion Nathan Cleverly put on a perfect display of skill, accurate punching and heart to overcome rival Tony Bellew in their Battle of Britain.  He then returned home to Wales for the first time in four years to defeat American Tommy Karpency in front of a packed crowd at the Motorpoint Arena.

British and Commonwealth Super-Middleweight Champion George Groves claimed domestic supremacy when he stopped former champion Paul Smith and the Hammersmith southpaw is now on the verge of challenging for a world title.

A huge night at West Ham’s United saw the biggest all-British heavyweight showdown in recent years between David Haye and Dereck Chisora in front of 30,000 fans.  The feuding rivals put on one of the best heavyweight fights seen in this country with big-hitting Haye stopping a brave Chisora in the fifth round.

BoxNation’s second season has got off to a cracking start with two huge upsets in Germany with Arthur Abraham beating WBO World Super-Middleweight Champion Robert Stieglitz and a week later IBF World Middleweight Champion Daniel Geale dethroning WBA champion Felix Sturm to unify the titles.

Queensberry Promotions’ exciting series BoxAcademy returned last Friday night at the home of London boxing the York Hall, Bethnal Green, with Tony Conquest retiring Ian Tims in the seventh round to win the Vacant WBO International Cruiserweight Championship.

Looking ahead, exciting talent Billy Joe Saunders kicks off a triple-header weekend tomorrow night.  The Commonwealth Middleweight Champion returns to action on Friday 14th September LIVE at the York Hall in a battle of the unbeaten punchers when he tackles dangerous Australian challenger Jarrod Fletcher.  Also on the card is the hot super-middleweight prospect Frank Buglioni plus some of Britain’s brightest talents.

The following night (Saturday 15th September) it’s a LIVE double-header from two continents starting at the Stechert Arena in Bayern, Germany, with Yoan Pablo Hernandez’s IBF World Cruiserweight title against Troy Ross.  Big-hitting Hernandez scored two memorable wins over Steve Cunningham – a controversial technical decision followed by a tough points win, both seen on BoxNation – and dropping him in both fights.  Ross won the US reality TV hit series The Contender in 2009 and will give Hernandez a tough test.

Then it’s LIVE to the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, for a fistic Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend for a massive show.  One of world boxing’s hottest young stars Saul Alvarez takes on Josesitio Lopez in a potential thriller.  At only 21, Mexican ace Alvarez is unbeaten in 41 fights with 29 going early and has excited fans with his all-action, hard-hitting, performances.  He faces a stern test against Lopez who scored a huge upset when he smashed Victor Ortiz in June to make his name on the world stage.  Also on the card, dynamite-punching Mexican hero Jhonny Gonzalez, one-time ruler of the bantamweight division, defends his WBC World Featherweight Championship against another iron-fisted warrior in Daniel Ponce De Leon.  Between them they have an incredible 106 fights with 80 big knockouts.  A further world title fight sees IBF World Bantamweight Champion Leo Santa Cruz defend his title against Erik Morel and Maidana on the world title comeback trail.  It’s going to be an explosive night.

The Auld rivalry reignites on Saturday 22nd September at Glasgow’s SECC between WBO World Lightweight Champion Ricky Burns and Kevin Mitchell in a gigantic Battle of Britain, LIVE. Scottish star Burns, a two-time and two-weight world champion, meets English rival Mitchell in one of the most highly anticipated fights in recent years. All-action Burns has been involved in thrillers against Roman Martinez and Michael Katsidis, but Mitchell will be his biggest challenge yet.  The tough heavy-handed Londoner has been gunning for a fight with Burns for the last few years and he’s looking to pull off a major upset in the champion’s home city.  The undercard also features Celtic Super-Featherweight Champion John Simpson plus former two-time WBO World Featherweight Champion Scott Harrison.

The heavyweights are back in action on BoxNation.  WBA World Heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin and former WBC World Champion Hasim Rahman collide at the Sporthalle in Hamburg LIVE on Saturday 29th September.  Russian star Povetkin is aiming for a showdown with the all-conquering Klitschko brothers and a dominant showing against Rahman will line him up for one of them.

Next up is BoxNation’s newest British star.  The hammer-fisted unbeaten heavyweight talent David Price puts his British and Commonwealth titles on the line against Audley Harrision LIVE from the Liverpool Echo Arena on Saturday 13th October.  It’s also a battle of the Olympians with Price winning Bronze in Beijing and Harrison claiming Gold in Sydney.  Liverpool giant Price has stopped 11 out of 13 early with his last last seven fights all ending by knockout, but Harrison is making a final stand in his career and is looking to upset the young star.  A quality packed card features a further three British title fights in a big night of action.

The man who destroyed Amir Khan is coming to BoxNation.  Danny Garcia took Khan’s WBC/WBA Super World Light-Welterweight titles with a devastating performance last month and now defends the titles against Mexican legend Erik Morales LIVE from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday 20th October.  A further world title on the card sees new WBA World Welterweight Champion Paul Malignaggi – who BoxNation viewers’ saw cause an unbelievable upset when he stopped Vyacheslav Senchenko in nine rounds to take his world title in the Ukrainian’s backyard in May – makes the first title defence against hard-hitting Pablo Cesar Cano.

The action switches LIVE the following week to the CSKA Stadium in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday 27th October where hero Denis Lebedev takes on Guillermo Jones for his WBA World Cruiserweight title.  Jones has won his last two title defences by KO, but equally iron-fisted Russian challenger Lebedev will have something to say about it in this potential thriller.  Also on the same night Nathan Cleverly returns to Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena to defend his title against world rated contender Yvacheslav Uzelkov in a massive Welsh fight night that includes a sizzling light-heavyweight showdown between Commonwealth Light-Heavyweight Champion Ovill McKenzie and former world champion Enzo Maccarinelli.

Queensberry Promotions makes its debut in Liverpool at the Olympia on Friday 9th November with a massive fight that sees exciting unbeaten talent Paul Butler take on John Donnelly for the Vacant British Super-Flyweight Championship and WBO Intercontinental Super-Featherweight Champion Stephen Smith take on Paul Truscott.

On Friday 30th November ex-England cricket captain and star all-rounder Freddie Flintoff enters the professional boxing ring to make his debut (subject to BBBC license) at the Manchester Arena.

BoxNation has secured some of the most respected boxing broadcasters including presenters Jim Rosenthal and Richard Keys, pundits Steve Bunce and Steve Lillis and commentator John Rawling, all making this home to the most knowledgeable and engaging team in the sport.

BoxNation has also delved into Mixed Martial Arts with it’s Ultimate Warrior Challenge Uncovered series that goes into the high-octane world of the world’s fastest-growing sports.

Amateur boxing also received fantastic exposure on BoxNation with the ABA Finals, World Amateur Championships, The Royal Albert Hall Cup: UK Armed Forces vs US Armed Forces and The Haringay Cup all televised live.

In addition, the boxing fans’ favourite show Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour goes from strength-to-strength with its mix of guests, interviews, news, exclusives, highlights and plenty of controversy.

BoxNation’s highly acclaimed documentary series Haye v Chisora: Beyond the Ropes delivered wall-to-wall drama and gave the public an insight into one of the most controversial fights ever staged in Britain.

The excellent Ring Masters and Welsh Dragons series featured fights of some of Britain’s greatest ever boxers and Hall of Fame Promoter Frank Warren selected his best fights in the series Frank Warren Presents.

BoxNation’s output deals with the world’s top boxing promoters Frank Warren Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions, Sauerland Events and with Frank Maloney Promotions recently bringing his stable of fighters to the channel, it ensures that the best action is seen from home and abroad.

BoxNation Chairman Richard Brooke said, “When we launched last year we wanted BoxNation to be the home of boxing on TV – now it is. The response from viewers has been tremendous and we will be showing even bigger and better boxing events from around the world in the next year.”

Promoter Frank Warren added, “This year has been the toughest and most challenging of my career, but it’s been the most exciting and enjoyable.  Now that BoxNation is established, I’m looking forward to making it the number one fight channel in the world.”

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