The best streaming services for watching boxing without going to pay-per-view

Boxing is massive when it comes to televised sport. All the big fights are treated as mammoth special events in the sports world, each promoted with an abundance of fanfare and outrageous drama.

Featuring truly widespread locations (before COVID, of course), attending the boxing could be quite a tall order—so it’s developed a massive TV industry of its own. Many countries have made the most of the exclusivity and demand with pay-per-view only available for all the major big-fight action. Others have garnered big fight rights to promote their channels and subsequent subscriptions.

Boxing is governed by several professional officiating bodies, with the fights themselves managed by a similar-sized selection of promoters.

Professional boxing bodies

• IBF – The International Boxing Federation
• WBA – World Boxing Association
• WBC – World Boxing Council
• WBO – World Boxing Organization

Boxing promoters in the worldwide market

• DiBella Entertainment
  Founded by Lou DiBella, DiBella Entertainment promotes many world-class fighters, rising prospects, and an expanding range of female boxers, including two world champions.
• Golden Boy Promotions
  A leading promoter, providing fights to both DAZN and ESPN.
• Matchroom Boxing
  Founded by Barry Hearn, this British promoter includes the best of British fighters. Its fights are available through DAZN.
• Mayweather Promotions
  Founded by legendary and undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr., in 2007, it co-promotes with Golden Boy Promotions on DAZN and ESPN.
• Premier Boxing Champions (PBC)
  PBC delivers Al Haymon’s series of televised events on FOX and NBC.
• Sauerland Events
  German boxing promoter Wilfried Sauerland co-promotes with Matchroom Boxing USA. Its fights are licensed to DAZN.
• Top Rank Boxing
  A promotion company founded by the long-term manager of Muhammad Ali, Jabir Herbert Muhammad, with fights licensed to ESPN.

As you see from our list of promoters, there’s a bit of a pattern. That pattern leads to our choice of channels when it comes to streaming the best of boxing, from wherever you live using StreamLocator.

Our prize fight (see what we did there?) falls between DAZN and ESPN+. With both services claiming rights to so many of the major promoters’ contests, they’re not only the obvious options but seriously affordable too.

Streaming the biggest and best boxing using DAZN

DAZN made its break into streaming sports back in 2016. In 5 years, it’s grown into a service providing coverage to over 200 countries.

While it may have started life gathering up rights to show a handful of sports to its Austrian, German, and Swiss audiences, it soon gathered momentum, expanding to a core base of around 10 countries. In December 2020, it fulfilled its goal to launch in 200 territories at a super-low cost and featuring a massive schedule of primarily boxing programming.

While its major territories entertain a $19.99 US/month subscription, the rest of the world pays a mere $2 or $3 US for the pleasure. Admittedly, for the vastly reduced subs, you’ll get little more than the boxing, but for such a low cost, if you’re a boxing fan, what’s not to like?

Well, there is a slight word of warning. Not all fights are available in all of the territories. Where a country has a pay-per-view option held by another provider or an alternative provider, then those rights go out of the window. You’ll need to check exactly which fights are available to you if you choose to go down your local route.

Our suggestion for true sports fans is to register with the Canadian DAZN platform, which provides you with an easy way to switch between the Canadian and German catalogues. Between them, they hold the broadest selection of all sports it seems the world has to offer, including all of the boxing you could ever wish for.

Not only will you get all the biggest and best boxing, but you’ll also have access to the best in European and international soccer, NFL football, Major League Baseball, NBA basketball, and so much more.

Streaming boxing using ESPN+

Despite delivering channels over cable and satellite throughout the States and to providers worldwide, ESPN brought about their own cable-cutting option with ESPN+.

For a mere $4.99 US/month, they stream masses of content from all manner of sports right into your TVs and devices.

If you just want a decent handful of big fight fixtures, then ESPN is worth the subscription alone with plenty of UFC and Top Rank Boxing.

Another alternative is to find a service that streams ESPN alongside any other content you’d like to stream.

StreamLocator alternatives for boxing fans around the globe

We’ve got a few alternatives that can help you get some big fight-night action using other streaming services. Ladies and gentlemen, our leading fight-night contenders:

• AT&T TV NOW
• Sling TV

So, what do you get from each service, and how much do they cost? We’ll cover those essential aspects to help you decide which is the best route is for you to take.

Streaming boxing on AT&T TV NOW

AT&T TV NOW includes ESPN in all of its tiers alongside its vast selection of entertainment and movie channels.

It also scores highly in quite a few of our other sports profiles, yet, if you fancy a break from all the sports, then you’ll have access to a selection of other big-name channels: ABC, CNN, HBO, CBS, Showtime, Cinemax, Disney, MTV, FOX, and more.

However, if it’s value that you’re after, the $65 US/month subscription might prevent AT&T TV NOW from being your ideal option, with DAZN and ESPN+ providing so much more for so much less.

Streaming boxing on Hulu TV

Again, another great all-rounder with plenty of channels to pick through, including all the boxing goodness ESPN has to offer. At $55 US/month, it promotes the same sort of issue as AT&T TV NOW, but if you’re already a subscriber, then it’s boxing in the bank without any further fees.

Streaming boxing on Sling TV

Sling TV bundles ESPN with all of its packages, so if you’re looking for a package that includes all of your required channels and shows, much like Hulu and AT&T TV NOW, it should do you quite nicely.

But not as nicely as our 2 top contenders—we suggest you choose DAZN or ESPN+ for an absolute knockout when it comes to boxing coverage.

Catching the latest boxing from your sofa never looked so good

With our suggestions and our smart-hub, you shouldn’t be far from having an endless stream of big fight nights streamed into your TV with the least amount of fuss. If you’re having problems connecting to any of our supported services, get in touch, and we’ll sort things out for you—it’s what we’re here for, after all.