Spike seeks Friday nights of all fights
Spike has come to an agreement with the Harvard educated boxing manager Al Heymon to add boxing to the current channel line of MMA and kickboxing.
Spike TV President Kevin Kay recently spoke with C.J. Tuttle of Sherdog, and detailed his intention to make Friday nights a combat sports hub. This comes after Spike, already the home of Bellator MMA, cut deals with Glory kickboxing, and now with the Harvard educated Al Haymon, to get access to the 150 prizefighters he manages.
The first two boxing matches announced are Andre Berto vs. Josesito Lopez, and Shawn Porter vs. Roberto Garcia.They will air on March 13.
I think what I wanted hear – I didn’t just talk to Top Rank before, I talked to everyone – was that they were going to put on big names in competitive fights, said Kay. I also wanted to hear that they wanted to innovate the production and presentation of it. I turn on fights now and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think it was 1975.
With (Haymon’s) Premier Boxing Champions, it felt like we were all on the same page, we want to put fighters first. We want a broadcast team that is young and looks how the audience looks, all those things were things that I wanted to hear. Too many people think the outcomes are predetermined, so I wanted someone to look me in the eye and say these are going to be competitive fights.
I love boxing. I do feel like boxing needs a comeback, it’s kind of in a rut. It needs someone to come in and change the presentation and do something different with it. Then put it on cable, not charge people $20 a month for six fights a year.
On the Friday night before any particular fight, whether it’s boxing, MMA or kickboxing, you’re going to see shoulder programming. That shoulder programming will start a week out, but will let you know you’re going to see whatever event it is next week.
What we are really trying to do is build Friday night’s as a combat sports destination. We are going to re-brand it. So the fans will know that every Friday night on Spike there is going to be a combat sports event. So once a month there is a boxing fight, once a month an MMA event and then eight Glory cards mixed in.