The social platform will broadcast Showtime Sports’ telecast of its Championship Boxing triple-header, headlined by a welterweight clash between four-division world champion Adrien Broner and Adrian Granados. Additional matches on the night include WBA Welterweight Champion David Avanesyan’s defense of his belt against former two-time champion Lamont Peterson, and Marcus Browne and Thomas Williams in a light heavyweight bout.
Unlike Twitter’s sports content deals with the NFL, PGA, and Campus Insiders, this will be a one-off event. The coverage itself is part of the Showtime free preview weekend, during which the premium network is available nationwide from February 17-20. Viewers can tune into the Twitter live-stream at 9pm ET via the platform’s newly launched Explore tab, the Showtime Twitter account, and its personal URL: showtimeboxing.twitter.com. The latter will allow logged-in viewers to share and read tweets about the match whilst watching the live action (the biggest perk for active users of the site).
“The sport of boxing is on the rise again, and the best and most meaningful fights are on Showtime,” said Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager, Showtime Sports. “With this unprecedented live stream on Twitter, we have the opportunity to reach boxing fans and casual observers everywhere with the industry-leading boxing programming we deliver to our subscribers on a consistent basis.”
“Twitter is where fans go to for live conversations about boxing,“ said Anthony Noto, COO at Twitter. “Our collaboration with Showtime Sports will provide fans access to the live video stream of Saturday night’s best-in-class championship boxing coverage and the live conversation all on one screen.”
Twitter recently upped its coverage of live events by striking a new deal with Dick Clark Productions to stream the red carpet pre-shows of several awards shows, including the American Music Awards, and Billboard Music Awards. The company also recently revealed that its live-streaming coverage of the Grammys was its second most-watched broadcast of all time (behind Donald Trump’s inauguration) with 5.1 million viewers. Noto also claims the company will double its live video content this year.
