Sources: Golden Boy and DAZN close in on 3-year deal to continue partnership

Golden Boy Promotions and DAZN are on the verge of a three-year deal that will keep the promoter’s boxing events on the sports streaming service, sources told Fight Freaks Unite.

Golden Boy’s current deal with DAZN expires at the end of the year and the sides have been in negotiations on a new contract, which is “at the 2 yard line,” a source familiar with the discussions said.

After HBO exited the boxing business in late 2018, Golden Boy needed a new broadcast partner. With superstar Canelo Alvarez then its cornerstone fighter, Golden Boy in mid-October 2018 signed a long-term deal with upstart DAZN, which had launched in the United States the month before with Matchroom Boxing as its sole boxing provider.

But it added Golden Boy events when it became the exclusive home to Alvarez under a then athlete-record five-year, 11-fight, $365 million deal. In conjunction with that agreement, it also made a five-year deal to become the home to all of Golden Boy’s events as well as its extensive fight library.

When the Golden Boy-Alvarez relationship soured, Alvarez sued Golden Boy founder and CEO Oscar De La Hoya, the company and DAZN for breach of contract in September 2020. Two months later, they reached a settlement under which Alvarez became a promotional and broadcast free agent, although he would return to DAZN for his next three fights via Matchroom Boxing.

Golden Boy, without Alvarez, was forced to rework its contract with DAZN. That deal expires at the end of the year.

The final card of Golden Boy’s current agreement with DAZN is scheduled for Dec. 18 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, where light heavyweight contender and former super middleweight world titlist Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (42-0, 28 KOs) will face Yunieski Gonzalez (21-3, 17 KOs) in a WBA light heavyweight title eliminator in the main event for the right to become the mandatory challenger for world titlist Dmitry Bivol, who is also a DAZN fighter with Matchroom Boxing.

But Golden Boy and DAZN appear confident enough that they will finalize a new deal that DAZN has agreed to put on a Golden Boy event as a one-off outside of the expiring contract and any new deal on Jan. 22, according to sources.

That event, according to the sources, is due to be headlined by rising star welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. (18-0, 18 KOs) against an opponent to be determined and at a site to be determined.

Other boxers Golden Boy promotes that are significant to any new deal with DAZN include lightweight star Ryan Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs), who was forced to withdraw from a fall fight with Joseph Diaz Jr. due to a hand injury and subsequent surgery that will keep him idle into the new year; former junior lightweight world titlist Diaz (32-1-1, 15 KOs), who challenges Devin Haney for his WBC title on Dec. 4 on a Matchroom Boxing card; and middleweight contender and former junior middleweight world titlist Jaime Munguia (38-0, 30 KOs), who outpointed Gabriel Rosado in an action-packed DAZN main event on Nov. 13.

Golden Boy has approximately 50 fighters under contract.

In a late October interview with Fight Freaks Unite, DAZN executive vice president Joe Markowski addressed DAZN’s relationship with Golden Boy when asked about the impending expiration of their contract. Although he did not want to get into any details about a potential new deal, he was bullish on the relationship.

“I don’t want to speculate where we’re at with contractual stuff. It’s just not what we do, but our relationship with Golden Boy is great and we love working with them,” Markowski said. “They deliver great value. They’ve got a great roster of fighters who speak to our base, who deliver value. We have a good, very, very healthy relationship with Golden Boy. We have an ongoing relationship with Golden Boy. We’re planning to do lots more work with Golden Boy. We plan to do many more fights with Golden Boy in the future.”

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