Roc Nation Sports making a splash in the complicated world of boxing

Roc Nation Sports making a splash in the complicated world of boxing

It’s been a busy first month of 2015 for Roc Nation Sports, the outfit owned by rap superstar and media mogul Jay-Z.

On the eve of that inaugural show at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on January 9th called Throne Boxing came the announcement that Roc Nation Sports acquired Gary Shaw Productions including the contracts of its fighters including Bryant Jennings, the undefeated heavyweight contender from Philadelphia.

Then a few weeks later the next shoe dropped and after 13 consecutive title defenses in Europe, K2 promotions confirmed that the IBF/WBA/WBO/IBO and “The Ring Magazine” World Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko will travel to New York City on April 25th to defend his world titles against Jennings (19-0, 10 knockouts) at Madison Square Garden. 

Perhaps the most exciting news was when Super Middleweight Andre Ward  (27-0, 14 KOs) announced that he has ended his legal kerfuffle with his former promoter Dan Goosen and signed a promotional contract with Roc Nation Sports.

Widely regarded as one of the sport’s best pound for pound fighters behind Floyd Mayweather, the signing of Ward is a major coup for a new boxing promoter looking to become a force in the sport. 

Ward was in attendance at Madison Square Garden when Roc Nation’s Dusty Harrison-Hernandez defeated Tommy Rainone in front of a full house and met with the media at ringside.

Ward is the first boxing star to sign with Roc Nation Sports joining basketball’s Kevin Durant, baseball’s Robinson Cano and Football’s Victor Cruz.

Before Roc Nation Sports announced to the world they would be in the boxing business, they went out and hired David Itskowitch as its Chief Operating Officer for the boxing arm. 

Itskowitch brought to Roc Nation Sports 18 years of pure boxing business experience from his work at HBO and Golden Boy Promotions and instantly provided credibility the fledgling promotions company.  

Prior to the successful debut show in January, Roc Nation Sports went on a mission to make a statement in the business by outbidding everyone to offer nearly $2 million for the WBO mandatory title defense of then champion Peter Quillin and Matt Korobov. Neither fighter was signed to Roc Nation and the entire sport took notice. 

Quillin ultimately decided not to fight and let go of his WBO middleweight title. 

Roc Nation Sports then reportedly  turned their attention to attempting to lure some of the sports’ elite fighters by offering large sums of money to Keith Thurman,  Deontay Wilder and Adrien Broner but each fighter went on record saying they were not ready to join Roc Nation.

So in January with a lesser known fighters on the card and televised in Fox Sports 1 in the first of a three fight deal, Roc Nation Sports packed the Theater at Madison Square Garden and Jay-Z  sat ringside along with some of his famous friends including Rihanna and actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

Before the main event, fans were even treated to a rap concert by Grammy winner and Roc Nation artist Fabolous. Needless to say the  crowd was entertained by both the fights and theatrics of having Jay-Z and friends in attendance.

The same night Roc Nation Sports produced their first show there were 2 other nationally televised shows from ESPN2 and Showtime, yet boxing’s media elite such as Dan Rafael and Chris Mannix were in attendance in New York City for Roc Nations’ event.

“We had good fights, great press and good reviews from fans”, said Itskowitch. “Fox Sports 1 was very pleased with the quality of the broadcast. Overall it was a success.”

Las Vegas and Los Angeles may be future destination for Roc Nation boxing events and there’s buzz of a second show at the Theater at Madison Square Garden to take place on March 17th, which may be announced in the coming weeks. 

- Vladimir Lik / @VladimirLik