Matchroom Boxing to offer free access to classic events

With no live boxing or sports in general to offer for the next couple of months, Matchroom is unlocking its vaults this Wednesday, offering free worldwide access to their archives.

The service will also feature the rest of Matchroom Sports’, well, sports, including darts, snooker, and golf.

From Wednesday the service will allow fans to delve into the history books of all Matchroom’s offerings from Boxing to Darts to Snooker and many more for free. Fresh archive footage will be added continuously ensuring every sports fan has countless hours of sport to watch wherever they are in the world.

Fans will also be able to live stream ongoing events through a subscription package and pay-per-view options in territories without current broadcast rights holders. This will give fans direct access to the action including the World Darts Championship and Premier League Darts, Pool’s Mosconi Cup and World Pool Championship, plus the World Snooker Championship and the remainder of Matchroom Sport’s catalogue of live events.

Hearn and Co. are far from the first promoters to lean on classic content during quarantine; Golden Boy unveiled a whole slew of digital programming, PBC spent April showing replays on YouTube, and the various ESPN platforms now regularly host boxing marathons. Then again, I don’t think anyone’s saying “no” to more content.

As for how soon Matchroom will return to staging events, that remains up in the air. Hearn recently stated that the Dillian Whyte-Alexander Povetkin/Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano doubleheader would “probably” take place late July or early August and would be among their first post-quarantine events. Other promotions, like Top Rank and Zanfer, have their eyes on a June return.