Bob Arum hopes that Top Rank will finalise its new broadcast agreement in the coming weeks.

The promotional powerhouse’s contract with ESPN is to conclude by the end of July, eight years after the start of a collaboration that at one point was intended to deliver 54 promotions a year. 

Despite suggestions regarding Top Rank’s potential demise, Arum expects the new broadcast picture they enter to have an increased number of dates than exists in their expiring agreement with the influential ESPN. 

He is also confident that Top Rank’s fights will be broadcast on both free-to-air and streaming services, but played down the prospect of – as had been rumoured within boxing circles – Top Rank working hand in hand with Premier Boxing Champions, whose promotions have been featuring on Amazon and who, like Top Rank, are among the decreasing number of influential promoters not committed to DAZN. 

“Within the next few weeks,” Arum told BoxingScene when asked when he expects their new agreements to be secured. “It’s a little complicated, because when we were with ESPN it was one outlet – ESPN – and now there’ll be three outlets with Top Rank Boxing.

“More [dates] than we have now. Both streaming and free to air.

“Our contract is over at the end of July.”

Asked about a potential model with PBC, he responded: “No. [But] we’ve always been open to collaborate with PBC. It’s having their fighters fight our fighters – it’s as simple as that.”

From the perspective of their new broadcast partners the heavyweight Jared Anderson will likely represent one of Top Rank’s most valuable assets – even in a stable in which the IBF lightweight champion Keyshawn Davis and the featherweight Bruce Carrington are among their most promising young fighters. 

The 25-year-old Anderson’s career has stalled since he was so recklessly matched with Martin Bakole and suffered his first defeat in August 2024. He returned in February when he defeated Greece’s little-known Marios Kollias, but asked for their plans regarding the heavyweight, Arum replied: “Ask Jared Anderson. He has to get over what happened to him with Bakole. 

“I’ll be talking to his management in the next few weeks. Hopefully we get him back in action, but at this point I don’t know.

“[We will have a date for him] as soon as he’s willing to get in the ring and fight.”