NBC Sports Network & Kathy Duva: How Boxing Back on Versus Might Help the Sport

It was reported last week that Versus, which is going to be renamed the NBC Sports Network, is going to put boxing back on its air waves.

It was only a few years ago that Versus had boxing on.  It was almost like a resurgence of Tuesday Night Fights for a while with competitive matches like Kelly Pavlik vs. Bronco McKart put on the for fans to enjoy.  Unfortunately, the network made a mistake of signing a deal with Top Rank and Bob Arum.

Arum used the deal to put on so many mismatches that the station decided to take boxing off its programming.

It was a devastating blow to boxing as Versus had seemed to fill a void by putting quality matchups on basic cable.

The times they had put on one-time events with different promoters it had been a success.

They had put on a Saturday afternoon event from England with Paulie Malignaggi defending his championship on the undercard of Ricky Hatton vs. Juan Lazcano.

And the other fight was a candidate for fight of the year which matched up Steve Cunningham with Tomasz Adamek.

That card happened to be co-promoted by Don King Promotions and Main Events, which is run by Kathy Duva.

Duva is now being given the reins for the network's second boxing program and it seems like it might work out.

Main Events has few fighters under its banner and that means that they will most likely have to reach out to other promoters to put together fight cards.  It doesn't hurt that Duva and Main Events are also known for putting together spectacular fights.

More importantly, famed promoter and matchmaker Russell Peltz will be helping to put together the fights.

Having multiple promoters involved in each card could spell disaster for the second run of boxing on the sports network, but it could also be its saving grace.  

By having promoters have to work together it could stop any potential mismatches and abuses of power that could potentially stem from a single person controlling all of the TV dates.

Duva has four dates in which to prove that not only is boxing not a niche sport, but that she is the right person to showcase what it is capable of.

Hopefully, that is what fans get to see this time.