It was announced today that Frank Warren, Britain’s leading boxing promoter, his sons George and Francis’ company Queensberry Promotions and Bill Ives, one of Britain’s leading businessmen, have signed an exclusive agreement to create a powerful, new, promotional organisation. The combination of the promotional powerhouse that is Frank Warren and the business acumen and financial investment of steel tycoon Bill Ives is designed to take boxing promotion in the UK to a new level.
Mr. Warren, an inductee in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, has been responsible for promoting many of the world’s best boxers and their highest profile contests. Mr. Ives is the Chairman and principal of Rainham Steel, the UK’s foremost independent steel stockholder. He regularly features in the Sunday Times Rich List as one of the country’s most successful businessmen.
The background to this new partnership is a growing demand for high profile international boxing contests. With live sporting events becoming more and more valuable around the world, and boxing being one of the leading global sports, Queensberry Promotions, Mr. Warren and Mr. Ives intend to stage large scale boxing matches featuring the major superstars of the sport to live audiences around the world.
The Warrens and Mr. Ives are already business partners in BoxNation, the home of boxing on television in the UK. Launched as a pay service in December 2011, BoxNation is available on Sky channel 437 and Virgin channel 546 in all 13m pay-TV homes in Britain as well as online and on mobile. BoxNation will be the primary outlet for the Queensberry Promotions events and the partners believe that this will accelerate the growth of the channel, which has already proved highly popular and has a large and growing customer base.
The Warrens and Mr. Ives believe that boxing will benefit greatly from their new partnership. In the same way that the Premier League opened up football to a new wave of investment, so the creation of this joint venture can take boxing to the next level of popularity and exposure.
Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, the two highest paid sportsmen in the world according to Forbes magazine, shows the potential revenue that can be achieved within boxing. Mayweather’s upcoming bout against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, live and exclusive in the UK on BoxNation, is set to break PPV records along with it’s already record setting live gate and closed circuit record. And these boxers and level of event show the huge demand and potential of the sport.
Further announcements will be made in due course regarding major new signings and world title matches.
Frank Warren said, “I’m looking forward to this exciting new venture with Bill and my sons. We have in place a fantastic team with great boxers and with this significant investment we will continue to develop the best young talent into champions and household names and stage the biggest events. As a result of this new partnership, and due to the substantial amounts of money being owed to W. Promotions, I will now place W. Promotions into voluntary administration.”
Bill Ives said, “I have been an ardent follower of boxing throughout my life. I look forward to working with Frank and his sons to bring the most talented boxers of today to the living rooms of millions of boxing fans everywhere.”
George Warren, Managing Director of Queensberry Promotions, said, “Queensberry Promotions most recently acquired the rights to the huge British Title showdown between Billy Joe Saunders and John Ryder, and with the significant investment resulting from the new deal with Mr. Ives, it will provide the company with the platform to ensure some of the biggest and best domestic and international boxing are showcased on Box Nation.”
