Boxing
Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 6y

Barclays Center named official East Coast home arena for Premier Boxing Champions

Boxing

The Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York -- already one of the world's busiest venues for big-time boxing -- is going to remain that way.

The arena has struck a deal with Premier Boxing Champions to become its official East Coast home arena, giving Barclays Center exclusivity with the outfit in the New York region.

The deal will begin in December and calls for eight fight nights per year, though the number of years the deal runs was not disclosed nor were financial terms.

"Barclays Center is proud to be the official East Coast home of the PBC," said Brett Yormark, CEO of BSE Global, the company that operates the arena. "As our commitment to the sport expands, boxing has truly become another anchor franchise at the venue. In fact, [this] announcement guarantees a minimum of eight fights annually at Barclays Center, bringing many more unforgettable moments to our ring."

The $1 billion arena that opened in 2012 will host its 30th boxing event Saturday night when former welterweight world titleholders Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia square off for a vacant belt in the Showtime-televised main event. Of the 30 events, Saturday's card will be the 16th PBC show, so the new deal is essentially a more formalized version of what the organizations had already been operating under.

Though all of PBC's New York-area shows must take place at Barclays Center, or one of the other smaller venues it operates, Barclays Center can still book boxing events put on by other promoters if it wants, a Barclays Center spokesperson said. However, its promotional and marketing muscle is squarely behind PBC and its star-studded roster of fighters, which includes heavyweight world titleholder Deontay Wilder, interim middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo, junior middleweight titlist Jermell Charlo, unified junior middleweight titlist Jarrett Hurd, welterweight titleholders Errol Spence Jr. and Keith Thurman, Porter, Garcia, lightweight titlist Mikey Garcia and featherweight titleholder Leo Santa Cruz.

The PBC deal with Barclays Center is the third major deal PBC founder Al Haymon has closed in recent weeks. It also announced two lucrative television rights deals: a three-year contract to extend its relationship with premium cable network Showtime and a four-year deal with Fox under which it will have 10 prime-time network shows per year and 12 more on cable outlet Fox Sports 1, in addition to nearly 200 hours of shoulder programming to support the Fox events.

According the Barclays Center announcement, Brooklyn Boxing, Barclays Center's boxing franchise, will receive promotion and exposure to boxing fans through PBC's television outlets.

"Premier Boxing Champions is excited to call Barclays Center its official East Coast home," said Tim Smith, vice president of communications for Haymon Sports, which oversees PBC. "Barclays Center has become synonymous with superb boxing events and PBC is thrilled to continue its relationship with the arena and add to that growing legacy."

Since it began putting on boxing events in 2012, Barclays Center has hosted more than 250 bouts and 55 title fights.

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