ESPN, Main Events Stepping It Up!

By Scott Shaffer

20/10/2004

ESPN, Main Events Stepping It Up!

Today ESPN and Main Events announced a twelve show deal that calls for ten two-hour ESPN shows and two pay-per-view cards starting with a November 4, 2004 show.  Short term, the deal provides a tremendous boost to Main Events, who now have approximately 30 bouts to use as a show case for its stable of boxers.  Long term, the deal will benefit the sport as a whole because ESPN will handle the pay-per-views in-house, thus giving the cable network a financial incentive to its considerabel marketing prowess to build up both its own telecasts and the boxers who appear on them.  The first show will air November 4, 2004 from San Antonio, Texas and will feature Juan Diaz (Boxingtalk's #5 lightweight) defending his WBA title against Julien Lorcy (Boxingtalk #16).  The prelim pits Jorge Lacierva (Boxingtalk's #6 junior featherweight) against Armando Guerrero.  The second episode will air on December 3, 2004 from Atlantic City with a main event of Rocky Juarez (Boxingtalk's #6 featherweight) against Guty Espadas, a former world titlist.  Supporting that bout will be heavyweight Dominic Guinn (Boxingtalk #12) against Segei Lyakhovich.  The third episode will air on January 21, 2005, and the fifth sometime in February, hopefully to feature Kermit Cintron (Boxingtalk's #4 welterweight). Boxingtalk.com first reported this information over two weeks ago.