Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions unveils 2017 broadcast plans

A day after Showtime formally announced seven fights featuring talent from boxing manager Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions, PBC unveiled plans for a 2017 schedule that features three prime-time cards each on Fox and NBC, 25 shows on Fox Sports 1 and more on ESPN, Spike TV and Bounce TV.

The organization “will continue its mission in 2017 of making the sport available to the widest possible audience,” PBC spokesman Tim Smith said in a statement.

While specific fights were not mentioned beyond Tuesday’s Showtime list – which includes a welterweight unification bout between unbeaten Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia on March 4 and the Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz featherweight-title rematch Jan. 28 – PBC promised “particular fireworks in the hottest and deepest divisions in the sport at 147, 154 and 126 pounds,” in its statement.

On Dec. 10, unbeaten PBC-linked super-welterweights Jermall Charlo and Julian Williams will meet at USC’s Galen Center as the co-main event with a featherweight title fight featuring World Boxing Assn. 126-pound champion Jesus Cuellar versus Southland product Abner Mares.

PBC said the first of the three Fox cards will air Feb. 25, with FS1 shows running February through October. The NBC prime-time bouts will begin Sept. 23.

ESPN, which was dealt an unimpressive lineup of bouts this summer, surprisingly returns to broadcast 12 fights beginning April 14 through August.

“Excited” and “thrilled” were the words used by network officials about the PBC schedule.

There’s been increased speculation that Haymon is running short of the investment funds he raised to start PBC in 2015. The organization staged few important shows after Frampton’s victory over Santa Cruz in July and the record 6.3 million viewers that watched welterweight Errol Spence win an Aug. 21 bout on NBC that followed Olympic basketball.

PBC officials explained they were reluctant to take more Saturday ratings hits after getting hammered by college football a year earlier.

The disappearance brought an outcry for work from one PBC fighter, Vanes Martirosyan, and there remains skepticism in the business if PBC is capable of staging all of the 2017 cards.

“The 2017 season of the PBC series will be the most exciting yet,” a PBC spokesman promised in the schedule announcement.