“Told ya’ in 96′, I came to take this game and I did, Handled my biz…” – Jay Z
Those words were spoken in 2001 by Jay Z and they still ring true today. Jay Z is hoping to take over a new arena, boxing promotion. ROC nation sports will host their first boxing card at the world famous Madison Square Garden on January 9th.
“All of us at Roc Nation Sports are thrilled to announce our first boxing event along with our first series and television deal,” said David Itskowitch, the chief operating officer of Roc Nation Sports’ boxing division. “An evening of exciting fights, great music and fantastic entertainment will be a fitting way to kick off Throne Boxing, a series that will stand alone on the boxing landscape.”
Itskowitch, the former COO of Golden Boy Promotions, joined Roc Nation Sports as it entered boxing in August and has been eager to get to work on a show.
“I’m very excited about this deal because I do events. Until I’m doing events, I’m not really satisfied,” he said. “I now have a date, a network, a venue and a main event, and we’re ready to go. I’m tired of being asked what we’re working on. Now we have something with these shows, and to have our first one at Madison Square Garden is special. We want to do things big. It’s a basic cable television show, but we will amp this up. It’s at the Garden, it’s in New York, and we will have Michael Buffer as the ring announcer. To have our first show in New York is a great thing.”
Jay Z seems to be making the right moves in the boxing world. Getting Itskowitch to run operations for ROC Nation Boxing and maybe he can entice Richard Schaefer to also come on board.
Jay Z may be positioning himself to be the next Oscar De La Hoya of boxing promotions.
