NBC Sports Network Teams With Promoter Main Events On Boxing Series

NBC Sports Group today announced the formation of “NBC Sports Network Fight Night,” a boxing series that will debut Jan. 21, 2012 from Asylum Arena in Philadelphia. The “Fight Night” cards will air on NBC Sports Network, which will be rebranded from Versus on Jan. 2. The bouts are being scheduled in cities with Comcast Sports Group RSNs, and the nets will help promote the events and have the ability to re-air fights. NBC Sports Group will work with Main Events and promoter J. Russell Peltz on a strategy that will allow any promoter to get their boxers involved in these programs. There currently are four dates scheduled for the series, with the first in January, followed by one in March, June and December. NBC Sports and Versus President of Programming Jon Miller said there will be a variety of different spots and creatives that will run in each market promoting the fights. Each event will also tie into local news operations of those RSNs, and the nets will be on site to give additional promotion in those markets. Miller explained, “If you’re in Philadelphia, you’ll have Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia there with you for the weigh-ins, press conferences, give them a lot of content, give them some special access that they will then share with all the other RSNs so that we make this a full NBC Sports group initiative.” The series will air on Saturday nights. “We've got a very robust NHL schedule on NBC Sports Network that’s Sunday through Wednesday, we’ve also got college hockey now on Friday nights, so we thought that Saturday night would be a perfect night to debut this,” Miller said.