Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports division has no problem showing up on the college basketball court, the professional hockey rink or the big-league baseball field. In recent years, however, it hasn’t climbed regularly into the boxing ring.
Starting in July, it will.
Warner’s TNT Sports and streaming-sports outlet DAZN unveiled a new alliance Thursday that will create monthly boxing events — shown under the rubric “The Fight” — that will appear monthly on TNT and on DAZN streaming properties. DAZN can curate matches based on its alliances with top boxing promoters, including Top Rank, Matchroom Boxing, Golden Boy Promotions, and Queensberry Promotions. The first event is slated for July 4, and will include related programming on Warner’s TruTV.
The two companies aim to bolster the presence of boxing in the U.S. While ESPN, DAZN and Netflix all show boxing regularly, the sport’s halo is no longer as large after Warner’s HBO and Paramount’s Showtime both got out of the business of backing pay-per-view cards, activity that once bolstered their operations. HBO exited boxing in 2018 and Showtime followed in 2023.
Now, Warner and DAZN want to make boxing more a part of TV sports. ,The goal is to “have one championship fight every month in primetime on TNT and simulcast on DAZN,” says Walker Jacobs, global chief revenue officer of DAZN and president of its U.S. operations. “How can we make boxing part of the mainstream culture, make it as big as its history has been?”
Putting matches on TNT “can bring in the more causal fans,” says Raphael Poplock, TNT Sports’ senior vice president of strategic partnerships, content acquisitions and business development, during a recent interview, while also serving hardcore boxing aficionados.
The two companies will share revenue from the venture, says Jacobs, who likens the alliance to the partnership Warner has with Paramount when it comes to telecasting the annual NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tournament. The two companies both sell advertising for the annual extravaganza.
The new alliance has its roots in a partnership TNT Sports and DAZN struck to show the FIFA Club World Cup 2025. Both companies were impressed by the advertising results tied to the event, says Jacobs, with DAZN excited by Warner’s facility with programming. “They really know how to engage audiences” have have a talent
If “The Fight” sounds similar to a series of celebrity golf tournaments that TNT Sports backs under the title “The Match,” well, it’s probably not a coincidence. TNT has created several new sports franchises that are less reliant on the nation’s major sports leagues, part of a growing effort by traditional media companies to take more control over the sports rights that fill up so much more of their programming schedules. The cost to show top tier games from the NFL and NBA, among others, continues to rise. With that in mind, many of the nation’s big media companies have tried to launch their own entities. Warner also works with the three-on-three Unrivaled women’s basketball league, and recently unveiled a new “Dunkman” league alongside Shaquille O’Neal, while showing games from Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League.
“We love our premiere partners and that matters very deeply, and we like to complement that with early sponsorship of new leagues,” says Poplock.
TNT Sports will deliver additional programming and content tied to the boxing events on venues including Bleacher Report and House of Highlights. TruTV will serve as a venue for such things as event weigh-ins, press conferences, and other features.
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