Lebron James Teams Up with Oscar De La Hoya and DAZN with Distribution Deal
UNINTERRUPTED, the athlete empowerment brand founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, and DAZN, the largest global sports streaming platform, announced today a global distribution partnership that will launch with a new docu-series called “40 DAYS” produced by UNINTERRUPTED.
As part of this ongoing media partnership, UNINTERRUPTED will be producing a slate of content in the boxing space, elevating the stories of today’s most well-known boxers. “40 DAYS” will be widely distributed across several media platforms, debuting consecutive Tuesdays on UNINTERRUPTED’s channels, as well as on the DAZN platform and social media, and then each episode will premiere the following day on Univision, NBC Sports Network and a collection of popular regional sports networks including MSG.
The “40 DAYS” documentary title is derived from the grueling preparation for a prizefight that requires roughly eight weeks of Monday-Friday intense training. The first edition of “40 DAYS” will spotlight the build-up to the highly anticipated Cinco de Mayo weekend matchup between Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs. “40 DAYS” will be Executive Produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, in association with DAZN and Golden Boy.
“We’re partnering with DAZN to reach a whole new audience of global boxing fans that want to see another side to these athletes that has yet to be shown,” said Maverick Carter, UNINTERRUPTED’s CEO. “These documentaries will shine a light on the three-dimensional aspect of who these athletes are outside of the ring and empower them to tell their own stories as they prepare for some of the biggest moments in their boxing careers.”
As part of Canelo vs. Jacobs fight week, Maverick Carter, Oscar De La Hoya and DAZN Group Executive Chairman John Skipper will host a star-studded “40 DAYS” screening in Las Vegas on Thursday, May 2. Part one of the documentary will premiere on UNINTERRUPTED and DAZN on Tuesday, April 23, followed by part two on Tuesday, April 30.
“We’re thrilled to work with LeBron and Maverick on this partnership,” said Skipper. “They have a unique vantage point that allows them to understand both Canelo’s pursuit to be one of the greatest of all time and Jacobs’ dogged determination to reach the pinnacle of his sport.”
Canelo will walk into the ring as the WBC, WBA, Lineal and Ring Magazine Middleweight World Champion. Jacobs enters as IBF Middleweight World Champion. One man will leave the ring as the unquestioned leader of the 160-pound weight division.
“These are exciting times for the sport of boxing, and this partnership between UNINTERRUPTED and DAZN is yet another example of that,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy. “This is excellent for the sport as it will provide the kind of unique lens that only LeBron James and Maverick Carter can bring. At the same time, there’s no better way for them to start this partnership than by featuring the most important boxing event of the year, so Golden Boy is proud to be a part of it.”
Canelo vs. Jacobs is a 12-round fight for the WBC, WBA, Lineal, Ring Magazine and IBF Middleweight World Titles presented by Golden Boy in association with Matchroom Boxing. The event is sponsored by Tecate, “THE OFFICIAL BEER OF BOXING” and Hennessy “Never Stop. Never Settle.” The event will take place Saturday, May 4, 2019 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and will be streamed live exclusively on DAZN.
Canelo is a 28-year-old native of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico who became the top man in the sport by facing the best competition and making the best fights for the fans. At 154 pounds, Canelo captured several world titles and defeated the likes of Austin “No Doubt” Trout, Sugar Shane Mosley, Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo, Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara and Liam “Beefy” Smith. However, Canelo scored his most significant victory yet at 160 pounds, where he defeated Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in their highly anticipated rematch in September 2018 and established himself as the WBC, WBA, Lineal and Ring Magazine Middleweight World Champion. Canelo then made history by signing the most lucrative sports contract for an athlete in history to begin a groundbreaking, exclusive partnership with global sports streaming platform DAZN that saw the last king of pay-per-view boxing step into a new era as the new king of sports streaming.
Jacobs is a 31-year-old native of Brooklyn, New York who is widely considered as one of the best middleweights of this era. Despite being away from the sport for 19 months, due to a form of bone cancer that he courageously overcame, Jacobs rose up the middleweight rankings to win the WBA Middleweight World Title against Jarrod Fletcher in 2014. Jacobs made several successful defenses, including a thunderous first-round knockout of Peter Quillin the following year. Despite losing to Golovkin in a very close fight in 2017, Jacobs has remained undefeated since his return, defeating former amateur champion and middleweight contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko to capture the IBF Middleweight World Championship. Jacobs will look to capture more middleweight hardware in the biggest fight of his career.
About UNINTERRUPTED:
Founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, UNINTERRUPTED is an athlete empowerment brand with the objective of communicating what athletes have to say in an unimpeded way. Built on the idea that all athletes should have a platform to express themselves and share their stories directly with fans, UNINTERRUPTED takes a drastically different approach to sports media. The content is created and led by the athletes’ point of view. “More Than An Athlete” serves as a proclamation of self-expression and fearlessness to go beyond the typical boundaries from top tier athletes to amateur athletes all over the world.
About DAZN:
DAZN is the largest global sports streaming platform in the world. Since launching in 2016, DAZN had expanded across four continents with the service available in the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Japan, and soon to debut in Brazil. DAZN guarantees no long-term contract, no bundles, just affordable access to all the service’s sports on connected devices including smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, games consoles and PCs. In the U.S., DAZN has made its mark as an attractive alternative to pay-per-view within the combat sports industry. The platform features more than 100 fight nights per year from Matchroom Boxing, Golden Boy Promotions, GGG Promotions, Bellator MMA, the World Boxing Super Series and Combate Americas. DAZN also features live MLB action each day of the season with its new daily show, ChangeUp.
About Golden Boy:
Los Angeles-based Golden Boy was established in 2002 by Oscar De La Hoya, the first Hispanic to own a national boxing promotional company. Golden Boy is a media and entertainment brand committed to making fighting entertainment more accessible and affordable. The company’s in-house production team develops creative original programming for ESPN, RingTV.com and international channels across the globe. The company holds the exclusive rights to top boxers and has promoted some of the biggest and highest grossing events in the history of the sport. Now, Golden Boy is one of the most successful boxing entertainment companies in the world and shapes the future of boxing for fighters and fans alike through its 2019 partnership with streaming platform, DAZN.
