The Golden Contract is a

professional boxing Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse bid, purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regula ...

tournament created by boxing management and promotions company

MTK Global MTK Global (Mack The Knife Global) was a boxing and mixed martial arts management and event promotions company founded by Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan and former professional boxer Matthew 'Mack the Knife' Macklin. Originally established in 201 ...

. The tournament is held across three weight-classes with eight fighters in each class, competing in 10 x 3 minute rounds. The winners of each tournament secure a two-year, five-fight contract with MTK Global that guarantees a six-figure purse for each fight. The tournament is televised live on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

in the United Kingdom and streamed through

ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

in the United States.

2019/2020

The Golden Contract's inaugural tournament is being contested across the

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, this ...

super-lightweight Light welterweight, also known as junior welterweight or super lightweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional boxing In professional boxing, light welterweight is contested between the lightweight and welterweight divisions, ...

and

light-heavyweight Light heavyweight, also referred to as junior cruiserweight or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the division is above and up to , falling between super middleweight and cruiserw ...

divisions.

Featherweight

Competitors in the featherweight edition are; Britain's Ryan Walsh, Leigh Wood,

Jazza Dickens James "Jazza" Dickens (born 12 April 1991) is a British professional boxer who challenged for the WBA (Super) super bantamweight title in 2016 and the IBF featherweight title in 2021, as of october 2022 he is the IBO featherweight world champio ...

and Tyrone McCullagh; Ireland's David Oliver Joyce; Mexico's Carlos Araujo; Spain's Carlos Ramos; and Hairon Socarras of Cuba. With Britain's Razaq Najib and Jacob Robinson in reserve. The quarter-final bouts took place on 4 October 2019 at the

York Hall The York Hall, officially known as York Hall Leisure Centre, is a multi-purpose indoor arena and leisure complex in Bethnal Green, London, and is situated on Old Ford Road. The building opened in 1929 with a capacity of 1,200 and is now an inter ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and the semi-finals on 21 February 2020 at the same venue. The final was originally set to take place in June, however, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

the date was pushed back to 30 September.

Super-lightweight

Competitors in the super-lightweight edition are; Britain's Tyrone McKenna,

Ohara Davies Ohara Davies (born 9 February 1992) is a British professional boxer. He held the WBC Silver light-welterweight title from 2016 to 2017 and challenged once for the Commonwealth light-welterweight title in 2017. Professional career Amateur car ...

, Jeff Ofori, Darren Surtees, Kieran Gething and Mikey Sakyi; America's Logan Yoon; and France's

Mohamed Mimoune Mohamed Mimoune (born 21 September 1987) is a French professional boxer who held the IBO super-lightweight title in 2018. At regional level, he held the European and European Union welterweight titles between 2016 and 2017. Professional career ...

. The quarter-final bouts took place on 22 November 2019 at the York Hall, London, and the semi-finals on 21 February 2020. The final was originally set to take place in June, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the date was pushed back to 30 September.

Light-heavyweight

Competitors in the light-heavyweight edition are; Britain's

Hosea Burton Hosea Noah Burton (born 14 September 1988) is a British professional boxer who held the British light-heavyweight title in 2016. As an amateur, he won the 2009 ABAE National Championships in the middleweight division. Hosea is a cousin of heavyw ...

, Steven Ward, Liam Conroy, Tommy Philbin, Andre Sterling and

Bob Ajisafe Abubaker "Bob" Ajisafe (born 13 April 1985) is a British professional boxer. He challenged for the IBO light-heavyweight title in 2016. At regional level, he held the British light-heavyweight title in 2014 and the Commonwealth light-heavyweigh ...

; Germany's

Serge Michel Serge Michel (born 10 September 1988) is a German professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined ...

; and Latvia's

Ričards Bolotņiks Ričards Bolotņiks (born 24 March 1990) is a Latvian professional boxer who has held the WBO European light-heavyweight title since 2019. Professional career Bolotņiks played ice hockey when he was younger, but decided to try boxing since he ha ...

. The quarter-final bouts took place on 14 December 2019 at the Brentwood Centre, Brentwood. The semi-finals were originally scheduled to take place on 20 March 2020 at the York Hall in London, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the event was rescheduled to take place in September, being split over two nights; the first bout, featuring Bolotniks, took place in Bolotniks' hometown of Rīga, Latvia, on 26 September; the second bout will take place on the same card as the featherweight and super-lightweight finals on 30 September at the York Hall in London.

References

External links

MTK Global official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Contract, The 2019 British television series debuts 2010s British sports television series 2020s British sports television series Sports competition series Boxing competitions in the United Kingdom Sky UK original programming Recurring sporting events established in 2019 2019 in British sport 2020 in British sport 2019 sports events in London 2020 sports events in London 2019 in boxing 2020 in boxing