Top Rank

History

Main Bout

The precursor to Top Rank was Main Bout, a company founded by Muhammad Ali in 1966 to promote his fights. Along with Muhammad Ali, other early equity owners of the company included Jabir Herbert Muhammad, Bob Arum, and John Ali (chief aide to Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad). The company was founded after the Muhammad Ali vs. Floyd Patterson fight, and the company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts in the late 1960s. The company's stockholders included several other fellow Nation of Islam members.

''Top Rank Boxing on ESPN''

In the early 1980s, Top Rank Boxing and then-fledgling ESPN formed a partnership to bring a weekly boxing to the cable network which culminated with the first regularly televised boxing series since 1964. The first event was held on April 10, 1980, in Atlantic City, when middleweight Frank Fletcher decisioned Ben Serrano. The original Top Rank Boxing on ESPN was the longest-running cable series and weekly boxing series in history, after celebrating its 16th consecutive year in 1996. ESPN broke away from the contract afterward, replacing it with Friday Night Fights—a new series that would feature fights from other promotions and aired on ESPN2.

In July 2017, Top Rank began to soft launch a new broadcasting agreement with ESPN, beginning with Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn, followed by two more cards in August. That month, ESPN officially announced a multi-year agreement, calling for events airing across ESPN linear and digital properties (including its recently launched subscription service ESPN+), and an option to carry events on pay-per-view. On August 2, 2018, ESPN extended the agreement through 2025. This coverage ended in 2025.

Announcers

• Kenneth Anderson (a.k.a. Mr. Kennedy / Mr. Anderson)

Blow-by-blow

• Sal Marchiano (1980–1983)
• Sam Rosen (1983–1986)
• Al Bernstein (1986–1996)
• Don Chevrier (1987–1988)
• Tom Kelly (1988–1989)
• Barry Tompkins (1989–1994, 2010–2011)
• Bob Papa (1996–2003)
• Joe Tessitore (2003–present)
• Bob Sheridan (2010–2016)
• Brian Kenny (2012, 2016)

Color Commentator

• Al Bernstein (1980–1986, 1987–1998)
• Tommy Hearns (1980)
• Randy Gordon (1980–1982)
• Donald Curry (1985)
• Dave Bontempo (1986–1998)
• Teddy Atlas (1998–2017)
• Larry Merchant (2013–2014)
• Timothy Bradley (2016–present)
• Andre Ward (2017–2023)
• Mark Kriegel (2017–present)

Current boxers

Notable fighters

• Muhammad Ali
• Mikey Garcia
• Miguel Cotto
• Floyd Mayweather
• Oscar De La Hoya
• Mike Alvarado
• Jorge Arce
• Urbano Antillon
• José Benavidez
• Timothy Bradley
• Iván Calderón
• José Luis Castillo
• Martín Castillo
• Julio César Chávez Jr.
• Omar Chávez
• Joshua Clottey
• Bernabe Concepcion
• Terence Crawford
• Kid Diamond
• David Díaz
• Nonito Donaire
• Esquiva Falcão
• Yuri Foreman
• Yuriorkis Gamboa
• Miguel Angel Garcia
• Kendall Holt
• Demetrius Hopkins
• Miguel Angel Huerta
• Nobuhiro Ishida
• Jesus Soto Karass
• Vasiliy Lomachenko
• Juan Manuel Lopez
• Francisco Lorenzo
• Steven Luevano
• Antonio Margarito
• Raul Martinez
• Vanes Martirosyan
• Egor Mekhontsev
• Fernando Montiel
• Tommy Morrison
• Ryota Murata
• Manny Pacquiao
• Arnold Barboza Jr.
• Kelly Pavlik
• Anthony Peterson
• Lamont Peterson
• Hasim Rahman
• Brandon Rios
• Marco Antonio Rubio
• Andy Ruiz
• Mario Santiago
• Giovanni Segura
• Jorge Solís
• Ulises Solís
• Glen Tapia
• Anthony Thompson
• Ricardo Torres
• Brian Viloria
• José Luis Zertuche
• Shiming Zou

Other events

Early in its history, Top Rank promoted the Snake River Canyon jump of daredevil Evel Knievel in September 1974. The event, at Twin Falls, Idaho, was shown live on paid closed circuit television in hundreds of theaters, for about ten dollars each. The steam-powered Skycycle X-2 had a premature deployment of its parachute and Knievel survived.

References

References

1. "Risk vs. Reward".
2. Ezra, Michael. (2013). "The Economic Civil Rights Movement: African Americans and the Struggle for Economic Power". [[Routledge]].
3. (April 10, 2020). "40 Years of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN".
4. (3 September 2009). "No longer fighting, Top Rank, ESPN talk about fights". [[ESPN Inc.]].
5. "Pacquiao-Horn To Air Live on ESPN, 9PM ET/6PM PT".
6. (19 June 2017). "ESPN to televise Manny Pacquiao's next fight as part of new Top Rank agreement". Vox Media.
7. (30 June 2017). "Vasyl Lomachenko, Terence Crawford to headline live ESPN cards in August". ESPN Inc..
8. "Top Rank signs exclusive 4-year deal with ESPN". ESPN.
9. Ramos, Dino-Ray. (August 26, 2017). "ESPN And Top Rank Announce Multi-Year Agreement For New Fight Series". [[Penske Media Corporation]].
10. Hayes, Dade. (2018-08-02). "ESPN Sets Landmark Boxing Deal With Top Rank Through 2025". Deadline.
11. https://awfulannouncing.com/boxing/top-rank-departs-linear-tv-espn.html
12. (July 12, 1983). "Embarrassing Night in Boxing". The New York Times.
13. (May 13, 1986). "ESPN's Bernstein Won't Go Down Without a Fight". Sun-Sentinel.
14. (September 24, 1987). "Roundup Baseball". The Globe and Mail.
15. (November 18, 1988). "Saturday is Dream for Football Fanatics". Sun Sentinel.
16. (August 22, 1994). "Berman's Forecast on Redskins: Wait Till Next Year". Richmond Times - Dispatch.
17. (October 19, 1982). "Announcer Loses". The New York Times.
18. (August 29, 1985). "Odds & INS.". Chicago Tribune.
19. Pugmire, Lance. (December 13, 2017). "Boxing analyst Teddy Atlas is removed by ESPN from live fights". [[Los Angeles Times]].
20. (June 25, 1974). "Is he an athlete, daredevil, promoter, hoax, or a nut?". Spartanburg Herald.
21. (September 4, 1974). "Congressman says Evel bad influence on kids". Spokesman-Review.
22. (September 8, 1974). "Evel Knievel canyon leap today". Spokesman-Review.
23. Sellard, Dan. (September 9, 1974). "Evel Knievel's leap at canyon ends in draw". Eugene Register-Guard.
24. (September 6, 1974). "Snake River Canyon Jump". Chicago Tribune.