Showtime Sports, a prolific distributor of championship boxing and sports documentary programming for more than 37 years, will cease operations at year-end.

Showtime parent Paramount Global said in a statement that it has made the “difficult decision” not to move forward with boxing and other content produced by the Showtime division. Showtime Sports has distributed nearly 750 boxing events since its inception in 1986, including an industry-high five pay-per-view events in 2023.

Showtime Sports' November 25 David Benavidez-Demetrius Andrade fight will go on as scheduled, according to Paramount. 

“As we evolve our strategy to more efficiently allocate resources and align our content offering across the business, we've made the difficult decision not to move forward with boxing and other content produced by the Showtime sports team,” said Paramount officials. “Showtime will continue to air and support the remaining 2023 boxing slate and honor obligations through the end of the year. We want to express our deepest gratitude to our employees who have contributed to this award-winning sports programming over multiple decades."

Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza said in a statement that the company’s decision was not based on the division’s performance. “The company’s decision is not a reflection of the work we have done in recent years, nor of our long and proud history,” Espinoza said. “It is not an indictment on the value we have delivered to this network for 37 years, nor, in particular, in 2023. Unfortunately, in a rapidly evolving media marketplace, the company has had to make difficult choices allocating resources, resetting priorities and reshaping its content offering.”  

Showtime’s decision to step out of the boxing ring follows a similar move by HBO in 2018 after 45 years of televising live boxing matches. The two premium services helped establish the pay-per-view boxing business in the 1990s, often battling each other for the rights to the biggest fights. 

Overall, Showtime has distributed more than 2,000 live fights on the service and through PPV.  The company’s 2015 Manny Pacquaio-Floyd Mayweather fight remains the biggest PPV event in history with 4.6 million PPV buys, while its 2016 Mayweather-Conor McGregor bout stands as the second-biggest PPV event with 4.3 million PPV buys. 

Showtime Sports has also garnered 77 Sports Emmy Awards nominations and 17 Sports Emmy Awards.  

Showtime Sports will look to tie a bow on a busy pay-per-view boxing year with a November 25 fight between interim WBC world super middleweight champion David Benavidez and undefeated fighter Demetrius Andrade. 

The fight will be the sixth PPV boxing event for Showtime in 2023, the most of any distributor. The announcement comes on the heels of the network’s September 30 Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo PPV bout, which drew between 650,000 and 700,000 PPV buys, according to published reports.

Overall, the PPV boxing industry has distributed nine major PPV boxing matches this year — more than double 2022’s output — with Showtime’s April 22 Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia event setting the mark as the highest-performing fight of the year so far with a reported 1.2 million PPV buys.

Showtime Sports event and programming president Stephen Espinoza said the Benavidez-Andrade fight will continue the network’s pursuit of attractive and competitive fights for the PPV industry. Benavidez fought in the main event of a Showtime-distributed March PPV event card, defeating former champion Caleb Plant. 

“The event continues a torrid run of big events on Showtime PPV and will include an undercard of competitive, compelling fights that have become the standard for Showtime PPV events,” Espinoza said.  

Also on the PPV boxing docket are two ESPN PPV-distributed fights, including the October 28 WBC heavyweight championship bout between titleholder Tyson Fury and former UFC fighter Francis Ngannou, and the November 16 WBC lightweight championship fight between Shakur Stevenson and Edwin De Los Santos. 

On October 14, ESPN PPV will also distribute a boxing card featuring YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul in separate fights. 

The heavily hyped Aug. 26 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor pay-per-view boxing match proved to be worth the wait for both distributors and fans, and industry executives said they hope it boosts future pay-per-view boxing and UFC events.

Showtime last Friday reported that the fight, in which boxer Floyd Mayweather improved his record to 50-0 with a 10th round TKO over the game UFC/mixed martial arts champion McGregor — is expected to draw in the “mid to high” 4 million PPV buy range, which would potentially knock out the record 4.6 million buys generated by Mayweather’s 2015 fight with Manny Pacquiao. It could also eclipse the $450 million generated by the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout.

“We consider this a huge success,” Showtime Sports and Event Programming executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza told Multichannel News. “We could very well break the record — we just haven’t seen enough of the data to definitively say that — we’re either over the record or very close. Even if we don’t break the record, it’s still a massive success.”

Some MVPDs were reportedly overwhelmed by a flurry of last-minute fight purchases, to the point where Showtime officials said the Mayweather-McGregor main event was “slowed down” to allow distributors to complete orders. Espinoza, though, said there were no major distributor problems regarding buys. “We didn’t even experience the level of technical issues that we saw on Mayweather-Pacquiao,” he added.

Espinoza also called reports that the network’s new Showtime PPV app suffered major technological problems during the event “exaggerated,” saying that the network only received a “limited” number of complaints, which were quickly addressed. Showtime will provide refunds to those who were unable to see the purchased event, he added.

UFC’s website UFC.TV also struggled to keep up with demand, prompting the company to issue several post-fight statements regarding the issue. UFC said it is reviewing each consumer complaint on a “case-by-case basis,” adding that it was “disappointed by the technical difficulties that were experienced … We are working with our vendor NeuLion to assess exactly what happened.”

UFC president Dana White also said in a statement: “Nothing is more important to the UFC than our fans. They’ve always been incredibly loyal and supportive, and we’ll always take care of them.”

Some 3 million viewers watched the fight illegally, according to video security company Irdeto. Espinoza admitted that it was nearly impossible to totally eliminate illegal viewing of the fight given its magnitude.

“Like all events with this kind of appeal, we’re going to have people who will try to view it illegally,” he said. “We took, along with our partners, unprecedented action both before and during the fight to block and remove as many of the illegal streams as possible. ”

Despite the online problems, most industry observers said the fight inside the ring was better than expected, with UFC champion McGregor holding his own in his first ever boxing match, and will easily finish as the year’s most lucrative PPV event.

Former HBO head of pay-per-view Mark Taffet said the fight will generate significant momentum for both the PPV boxing and UFC categories. Both sports have PPV events scheduled over the next two weeks: The UFC will distribute its Sept. 9 UFC 215 pay-per-view event featuring Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg, while HBO will offer its Sept. 16 Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin bout.

“Mayweather-McGregor clearly exceeded fans’ expectations, and that is great news for both boxing and UFC,” Taffet said. “It bodes well for both sports, and I think it’s one of those great instances in which everyone comes out a winner — boxing, MMA, McGregor, Mayweather and the fans.”

Showtime Sports will turn to YouTube to promote its June 3 Adonis Stevenson-Andrzej Fonfara light heavyweight championship boxing telecast. 

The network will post the two fighters' competitive 2014 fight on its YouTube channel beginning today, according to network officials. Stevenson defeated Fonfara in a close decision in which both fighters scored knockdowns.

The Stevenson-Fonfara rematch will air live on Showtime this Saturday as part of a fight card that will also feature the Eleider Alvarez -- Stevenson’s mandatory challenger for the light heavyweight title -- against former 175-pound champion Jean Pascal, said the network.

Showtime Sports has been at the forefront of televised boxing for 30 years, taking a sport that for a generation was the purview of the broadcast networks and effectively promoting, marketing and distributing some of the most successful and lucrative fight cards in the history of the fight game.

Showtime and HBO’s co-distributed May 2015 Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao pay-per-view fight remains the biggest pay TV event of all time, drawing more than 4.4 million buys and more than $400 million in revenue. Boxing has become a staple of Showtime’s programming offerings, and both on its premium channel and via PPV, the network has showcased arguably the biggest names in the sport, including Tommy Hearns, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Julio Cesar Chavez, Lennox Lewis, Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather.

Showtime Sports and Event Programming executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza talked about the impact boxing has had on Showtime and vice versa over the past 30 years — as well as what the network is doing to ensure its future success with the sweet science — with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead.

MCN:How infl uential has boxing been to overall development of the Showtime brand?

Stephen Espinoza: It’s fair to say that boxing has been critical to the development of Showtime. It has provided another genre of programming that is completely consistent with the network’s overall brand. Showtime has become known for provocative, high-quality entertainment, with compelling characters, and there is nothing more provocative and there’s nothing more provocative and compelling than characters like Mike Tyson, Holyfield and Mayweather. Although it’s a much different type of programming in that its live sports as opposed to scripted dramas and comedies, its value to the network is the same — delivering unique, compelling, provocative programming at the highest level of quality.

MCN:How has Showtime enhanced the viewer’s experience of watching boxing on television compared to the broadcast television networks?

SE: I think there was a certain consistency in presentation that premium television offered to boxing. The ability to stay with a fight between rounds without going to commercial break is something that greatly enhances the presentation of the sport as a whole. The ability to do things without really needing to take a break in the action and to present [uncensored] content to an adult audience, in some cases, were really things that premium television could offer, so I think the experience of professional boxing on premium television was qualitatively different than anything else.

I also think the technology has impacted how the sport is presented and how we market, distribute and deliver the bout. We were covering the events with 15 cameras to be able to deliver the bout that mimics as close as possible the in-arena look and feel of the event. The advent of HD, Dolby 5.1, were also critical pieces of delivering that feeling of a live event. More recently, going to a 4K camera, which we started using three or four years ago, added another layer of detail of the visual presentation. Equally important was marketing and advertising the event. The advent of social media and digital marketing in general have been critical in being able to reach fans.

MCN:The premium category over the years has also been criticized for hurting the sport by taking its biggest stars away from broadcast television and forcing fans to pay to watch big fights. Do you think that is a fair criticism?

SE: I don’t think premium television hurt the sport per se. The shift to premium television was a significant change, but that was really more a factor of premium networks stepping into the void created by a decrease in networks televising boxing. There was the death of a fighter in the ring during the [1982 CBS-televised] Ray Mancini-Duk Koo Kim fight, and that caused some broadcasters to reconsider their commitment to the sport. It was a result of several factors that allowed premium television to become more active.

We can certainly debate whether [boxing’s move to premium cable] was a positive or negative development for the visibility of the sport. In an ideal case, having regular exposure of boxing on a broad, over-the-air platform is something that would have helped the sport overall historically. But overall, I think we have been good stewards of the sport and the sport has done wonders for the network as well.

MCN:Looking ahead, is the sport currently flourishing on Showtime?

SE: It is. The entire media market is undergoing changes, and that’s true for premium television, as well as boxing. There’s uncertainty as we undergo those changes, but there’s huge opportunity as well. For Showtime, our investment has been in the heavyweight division with such stars as [champions] Dante Wilder and Anthony Joshua are two investments that will provide us with hours and hours of great fights. More generally we are developing the largest pool of young, talented fighters that are going to lead the post Mayweather era. That includes Leo Santa Cruz, Keith Thurman, Sean Porter and Danny Garcia.

MCN:Who is the most impactful fighter to fight on Showtime?

SE: I’d say in terms of impact I’d say it’s a three-way tie between Tyson, Holyfi eld and Mayweather, with a close second being the fighter that’s appeared more than any fighter on Showtime, Julio Cesar Chavez.

MCN:What was the most memorable fight on Showtime?

SE: The one that immediately jumps to mind is the 2005 Diego Corrales- Jose Louis Castillo fight which, during my lifetime, is the best fight that I’ve ever seen and was later named fight of the decade.

Time will tell whether or not boxing champion Floyd Mayweather will go down as the greatest pugilist in the history of the sport.

In terms of champion sports brands, though, the 38-year-old Mayweather — who won 12 world titles in five different weight classes before announcing his retirement in September — is currently the undisputed, pound-for-pound titleholder.

Read R. Thomas Umstead's Q&A with MCN's Male Athlete of the Year.

Earlier this year, Forbes named Mayweather as the world’s highest-paid celebrity in 2015. The boxer generated a record $300 million this year, obliterating the previous high of $115 million earned by professional golfer Tiger Woods in 2008.

Much of what Mayweather earned this year was generated by his much-hyped May 2 fight against Manny Pacquiao, which set pay-per-view industry records for buys (4.4 million) and revenue ($400 million), destroying the previous record of 2.47 million buys generated by the 2007 Floyd Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya fight and the $150 million in revenue earned by the 2013 Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez fight.

Mayweather’s Sept. 12 fight against Andre Berto completed his unprecedented six-fight deal with Showtime, which generated about 10 million buys and $800 million in PPV revenue over its three-year span.

COTTAGE INDUSTRY

“There are entire sports leagues and corporations with hundreds of employees who would love to have the economic impact that Floyd has had over the past few years,” Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, said.

Mayweather, who earns the inaugural Multichannel News male Athlete of the Year Award, has been in the top echelon of boxing since he won the super featherweight title in 1998. Mayweather would go on to amass a record of 49-0 over his 19-year pro boxing career, winning championships in five different divisions against such formidable opponents as the now-retired De La Hoya, Pacquiao and current middleweight champion Alvarez.

“He’s faced everybody and he’s beaten the best in the game,” said Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, the fighter’s boxing and entertainment promotion company. “He’s beaten these guys in their prime and makes very good fighters look ordinary. Name me one athlete in any sport who is the best at what they do at the age of 38.”

Mayweather’s 2007 fight with De La Hoya, his 2013 bout with Alvarez and this year’s fight with Pacquiao serve as the only PPV events ever to break the 2 million buy mark.

Read about MCN's Female Athlete of the Year, Ronda Rousey.

Mayweather’s brand extends beyond the ring. He took full advantage of the emergence of social media to further perpetuate his personality and persona. Mayweather has more than 12 million Facebook fans and 6.5 million Twitter followers. Observers say Mayweather has used social media effectively to talk directly to his fans and sell his fights as has no other professional athlete.

Over the years, he has also appeared in numerous high-profile media events, from WWE’s WrestleMania to ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, building more awareness for himself, the sport and the brand.

“No one has exploited social media like Floyd Mayweather,” HBO Sports senior vice president Mark Taffet said. HBO distributed several Mayweather PPV events in the 2000s and co-promoted the record-breaking Mayweather-Pacquiao fight with Showtime.

“Floyd has worked very, very hard to achieve the PPV figures that he achieved,” Taffet added. “It was no accident.”

Of course, Mayweather is not without his detractors. They criticize the fighter’s somewhat action-deficient defensive boxing style, as well as his often abrasive personality. But In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development Mark Boccardi said that criticism has worked to Mayweather’s advantage with regards to his PPV fight performances.

POLARIZING FIGURE

“Whether he was ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ Mayweather or ‘Money’ Mayweather, he created a legion of fans that wanted to both see him win and lose, and there’s a large segment of PPV buyers who bought his fights to see if someone could really beat this guy,” Boccardi said. “What he really did was create both those camps — the pro-Mayweather and pro-Mayweather-opponent camps — and that’s why he was able to generate the PPV buys that he did.”

Added Showtime’s Espinoza: “There are a lot of different opinions on his personality and the image that he portrays publicly. Regardless of those opinions, everyone in the sport has benefited. The sport would not have received the level of mainstream exposure, awareness and worldwide media attention without him.”

As for the future, Mayweather said he will remain retired, and Ellerbe added that the fighter is content to leave the sport behind after a phenomenal career. “He’s done everything he can in the sport of boxing, and he’s ready for the next stage of his life.”

Others however are not convinced, and hope to once again see Mayweather in the ring.

“There are a large number of people who secretly, and not so secretly hope he comes back including TV-distribution companies and Las Vegas touring companies,” Espinoza said. “We’re patiently waiting to see what develops.”

The Sept. 12 Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Andre Berto fight could be bittersweet for pay-per-view distributors, as Mayweather, the category’s biggest draw, is expected to retire after the event.

While the bout for the WBC and WBA welterweight titles could draw as many as 1 million buys, according to fight distributor Showtime, the 38-yearold Mayweather last Wednesday (Sept. 2) reiterated to reporters his plans to retire after the fight during a conference call to promote the event. This week, promoters Showtime and CBS opened up a pay streaming option to add another option for potential buyers -- an unusual move for a big PPV fight.

If Mayweather does walk away from the ring after battling the 31-year-old Berto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, he would do so as the most lucrative draw in the history of the PPV category.

Mayweather led all athletes and entertainers in generating more than $870 million in PPV revenues, according to Forbes. That was before his record-setting May 2 fight against Manny Pacquiao, which generated more than $400 million in PPV revenue.

“While I will leave it up to others to debate Floyd’s position among the all-time greatest boxers, I can say he is undoubtedly the all-time PPV king,” Mark Boccardi, In Demand’s senior vice president of programming and business development, said.

PPV LEGACY ASSURED

Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza has said that Saturday’s Mayweather-Berto event — which will retail for a suggested $64.95 — could draw in excess of 1 million buys, despite the relatively unknown status of former welterweight champion Berto. Espinoza said he doesn’t expect the fight to come anywhere close to the more than record 4.4 million buys generated by Mayweather-Pacquiao, though.

What Espinoza said he doesn’t have to predict is Mayweather’s legacy in the sport and the PPV category. “I don’t think that there is any question that Floyd Mayweather is the greatest PPV draw ever,” Espinoza said.

“He’s surpassed 2 million PPV buys three times,” the Showtime executive added, referring to Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya in 2007, Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez in 2013 and Mayweather-Pacquiao this year. “No other fighter has done it more than once,” Espinoza said. “He’s really separated himself from any other attraction.”

Mayweather’s appeal as a PPV draw extended beyond his in-ring exploits, Boccardi said. The fighter’s social-media appeal — Mayweather has millions of Twitter followers — as well as his appearances in entertainment-based vehicles from Dancing With the Stars to the WWE’s Wrestlemania have helped Mayweather create a brand that has transcended boxing.

“Not only is he incredibly gifted in the ring, but he’s also the sport of boxing’s first superstar in the Internet/reality-TV generation — he’s created another aura outside the ring because of the generation that we live in,” Boccardi said. “He’s a boxer that to some people is more famous for being a character on TV than a fighter, but he backs it up by being so talented in the ring.”

While Mayweather has set the template for being a successful PPV event draw, Boccardi said it won’t be easy for other up-and-coming fighters to replicate Mayweather’s success both in and out of the ring.

“The way he did it worked well with his personality, but it’s not going to work for everyone,” Boccardi said. “The old saying [that] you can’t fit a square peg into a round hole holds true here — you can’t take a guy that might be gifted in the ring but is shy and not confrontational and try to create another Mayweather.”

COULD HE ‘UNRETIRE?’

Of course, there is the potential that the industry will see Mayweather in the ring again after the Berto fight. Mayweather has retired and unretired in the past, and with a chance to build a 2016 mega PPV event around breaking legendary heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 mark in his next fight — assuming he gets by Berto — industry observers say it’s a good bet we’ll see Mayweather back in the ring.

Even Espinoza said Showtime would likely look to coax the undefeated champion back for one more go-round. Saturday’s Mayweather-Berto fight is the last bout in a six-fight PPV deal between Mayweather and Showtime.

“There’s a good amount of disbelief about Mayweather’s plans to retire, largely because he’s still operating at such a high level,” Espinoza said. “But he’s 19 years in, and that’s a long time to be a fighter, so I understand the disbelief, but I also hear in Floyd’s voice that he’s ready to call it a career.

“Having said all of that, we’re going to try, but for the time being he has said to us, don’t call me, I’ll call you for the foreseeable future.”

Showtime Sports will distribute the Sept. 12 Floyd Mayweather-Andre Berto fight on pay-per-view, in Showtime and “Money” Mayweather’s first PPV boxing event since the May 2 Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight, which generated a record-setting 4.4 million PPV buys.

The September bout is being billed as Mayweather’s last fight, and it is certainly the last fight in Showtime’s six-bout television agreement with the undefeated boxer.

Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the upcoming fight — which will retail at a suggested PPV price of $64.95 — as well as managing the event’s performance expectations in the shadow of Mayweather-Pacquiao.

Espinoza also reflected on the success of the network’s multifight deal with Mayweather and looked ahead at the coming PPV opportunities.

MCN:There were initial reports that this fight would air on broadcast television via CBS. How did you ultimately come to the decision to distribute it on PPV?

Stephen Espinoza: [Broadcast television] would have been a really interesting and fun way to televise his last fight, but practically speaking, it didn’t work out from a timing perspective. Ad time and sponsor dollars are spent six to eight months in advance, so to try to sell ad time for an event of this magnitude eight to 10 weeks ahead of the event is something that is difficult, particularly when you’re talking late in the third quarter, when so much of the advertiser budget is committed.

MCN:Having said that, you don’t have the typical two to three months of lead time to promote a PPV boxing match and you’re dealing with a relatively unknown opponent in Andre Berto. Can you do an effective job 0f marketing the fight?

SE: We’ve known for a few weeks of the date and the opponent, so we’ve been making those preparations for quite some time. Behind the scenes, from a marketing and promotion perspective, the wheels began turning a long time ago. It’s inevitable that after a mega-fight like Mayweather-Pacquiao, whatever comes next will seem a bit anticlimactic. So we definitely have to work to fight that. In this case, Floyd said this will be his last fight, and he’s been consistently saying that, so the event takes on greater significance.

MCN:Do you have concerns that there may be some viewer fatigue stemming from Mayweather-Pacquiao?

SE: We’re not going to capture that magic on this event, but what we do have in this event is an even greater mainstream awareness of Floyd Mayweather than we did on the last fight.

The choice of Berto as an opponent in part is a response by Floyd to some of the feeling among some fans that there wasn’t enough action and aggressiveness from Pacquiao during the last fight. If there’s one thing that Andre Berto is known for, it’s being an aggressive fighter — his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness in that he has one speed, which is all-out attack. We’ve seen that have some success against Floyd.

MCN:Do you think the fight can reach 1 million buys?

SE: I believe so. We have an incredibly strong undercard, great mainstream awareness among boxing fans generally, and historically September is a very good time for Mayweather pay-per-views because there are other opportunities for cross-promotion through CBS NFL football or CBS college football — there’s a lot more discussion around sports in general than even in May. There’s not a ton of sports competition, but there’s enough that there’s excitement about sports events in general.

MCN:The fight marks the end of your six-fight deal with Mayweather. Is it a bittersweet ending for you?

SE: Yes. The first five fights have really flown by, and looking back we’re all extremely proud of what we’ve done. Floyd has done his part, taking on tough fights, including two guys most people thought he’d never fight [Pacquiao and Canelo Alvarez]. To be sitting here now with nearly 10 million PPV buys through the first five fights with some great moments and telecasts to show for it, we couldn’t be happier with the collaboration.

MCN:What does the future of Showtime PPV boxing look like after Mayweather?

SE: It will be a while for the vacuum to be filled. There’s not an obvious successor to Mayweather’s position as pay-per-view king, but if we look at the history of the sport, the vacuum is always filled. It might be a guy like Dante Wilder, or Keith Thurman or Danny Garcia or somebody that we don’t even see coming. But I have no doubt the vacuum will be filled pretty quickly.

Longtime boxing promoter Dan Goossen died Monday after battling liver cancer.

Goossen, 64, worked with numerous boxing champions during his decades long career, including Mike Tyson, Bernard Hopkins, and current super middleweight champion Andre Ward. He was diagnosed with liver cancer this past Labor Day, according to ESPN.com.

Showtime Sports general manager Stephen Espinoza said in a statement: “All of us at Showtime are deeply saddened by the passing of Dan Goossen.  This news has come as a shock to many of us who knew Dan personally, beyond our collaborative work on boxing events, for decades.  We will remember Dan as a passionate advocate for the sport of boxing, a fun-loving colleague and friend, and, above all, a devoutly religious family man.  Our deepest sympathies to the entire Goossen family.  May he rest in peace.”

Ken Hershman, President, HBO Sports said,"Everyone at HBO Sports is saddened by the sudden loss of Dan Goossen. Dan was a dedicated boxing promoter who we worked closely with for many, many years on some of the most important fights in the sport. But what was even more impressive was his total commitment to his family, who were always right by his side during fight week or wherever his business required him to be. Our prayers and thoughts are with his wife, Debbie, and the entire Goossen family."

ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions said of Goossen: “Dan Goossen was an absolute titan in the boxing industry and a great friend to ESPN. He was the mastermind behind bringing the WBC World Heavyweight Championship bout between Bermane Stiverne and Chris Arreola to the masses via ESPN back in May. He will be sorely missed.”