Showtime Sports will offer boxing fans in the U.S. for the first time on Saturday streaming of two undercard bouts that are available exclusively on Facebook Live.
The broadcast features multi-camera views and dedicated announcers Scott Hanson and Mark Kriegel following the action as junior welterweights Sergey Lipinets (10-0, 8 KOs) and Lenny Zappavigna (35-2, 25 KOs) square off and middleweights Erickson Lubin (16-0, 11 KOs) and Juan Ubaldo Cabrera (23-1, 15 KOs) go at it in Los Angeles.
Fans will need access to Showtime in order to watch the main card of Jesus Cuellar-Abner Mares and Jermall Charlo-Julian “J-Rock” Williams at the Galen Center. But the press conference and weigh-ins before the featured fights were available on Facebook Live.
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And with the bonus undercard bouts that were previously only available to fans inside the arena, fans have more options than ever when trying to watch boxing and interact with others during the matches.
Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza told Multichannel News that the network hopes the undercard fights on Facebook Live will drive awareness of the network’s live card.
“Also philosophically, as a network practice, this is a smart play for us to extend our reach and ultimately attract subscribers and viewers to boxing’s most important events that will air on the network,” Espinoza said. “Over the years, we have used a variety of platforms to attract new viewers — Free Preview Weekends and programming samples in all forms. This is the modernization of that.”