Sports Business Journal, ESPN and other news outlets are reporting that Paramount Global is shutting down Showtime Boxing effective at the end of the year. Showtime has been a mainstay in covering boxing since 1986. The announcement will lead to an undetermined number of layoffs, including Showtime Sports president, Stephen Espinoza. Paramount Global issued the death sentence as follows: “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. 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."

 

Promoter Oscar De La Hoya tweeted, "I salute Showtime for their near-40 year commitment to the sport that I love. I am hopeful that we promoters can use this unfortunate situation to put our differences aside and start working together more often to help make more of the bigger fights and grow our sport."