From Madison Square Garden – Most Valuable Promotions announced MVPW, a new platform focusing on women’s boxing that will air on ESPN in a multi-year deal. 

“I was raised by a single mom so seeing her struggles and path to making it was always something that was very eye-opening for me” said MVP CEO Nakisa Bidarian when asked about the importance of forming MVPW. “As we all know half the world are women, 50% of the world population, so there’s a massive demographic available. You then look at the amazing athlete that are women throughout the world. And then I was fortunate enough to be there when we introduced women’s MMA to UFC and to see the impact that Ronda Rousey had was beyond eye-opening. And when we set up MVP and we said to our network partner, we want to put women’s boxing on as the co-main event everyone paused, took a step back and didn’t seem to understand why and honestly, a lot of it was that conviction of what I saw with Ronda Rousey and the belief that we could find an Amanda Serrano they could show the world with the sport is all about. Now, to be here four years later with the best sports platform in the US on linear television for all these incredible athletes is the most important day of my career”. 

MVPW01 wil be April 5th at Olympia Events in London and will feature Caroline Dubois (12-0-1, 5 ko) vs Terri Harper (16-2-2, 6 ko) for the unified lightweight Championship, and co-headlined by Ellie Scotty (11-0) taking on Mayelli Flores (13-1-1, 4 ko) for the undisputed title at jr. featherweight. 

MVP02 will be April 17th at the the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden and will be main evented by unified champion Alycia Baumgardner (17-1, 7 ko) in a 10×3 minute round bout defending her title against South Korea’s Bo Mi Re Shin (19-3-3, 10 ko). The fight will be supported by a title defense from Paterson’s unified champion Shadasia Green (16-1, 11 ko) against New Zealand contender Lani Daniels (11-4-2, 1 ko).

“This event is going to be super exciting” said Baumgardneer. “Nakisa, Jake Paul, MVP have been game-changers in women’s sports, and now we has ESPN coming along with MVPW. So to be a part of that, to be a game changer, to be someone who is setting a standard, I’m looking forward to this opportunity, setting the stage, and as always, bringing the fight”. 

After being asked about a fight with Claressa Shields on multiple occasions and the two circling each other for a few years now, Green told ITRBoxing “I just keep training hard for whats in front of me and Lani Daniels is whats in front of me, so I can’t think about nothing else right now, I just gotta train hard for her and make sure I show up and show out. I’m just excited and ecstatic to be a part of this.”

The third and final card announced will be the rematch between WBA lightweight champion Stephanie Han (12-0, 3 ko) and multi-sport legend Holly Holm (34-3-3, 9 ko) in El Paso Texas. “Thank you Nakisa, thank you Jake Paul, thank you MVP. To have this fight in my city of El Paso it’s a dream come true and I’m so excited because I know Texas, New Mexico and Mexico is gonna come out to support this fight” said Han.

Also present was Amanda Serrano, Tiara Brown, Tamm Thibeault, Oshae Jones and LeAnna Cruz.

While no date was announced for Serrano, when asked about her return she said, “Listen, there’s one card in particular I’m looking at, but I’m still speaking with the team, Nakisa and Jordan. But they know I need to fight, I never fought on ESPN, I’ve fought on the best platforms. I remember sitting watching Tuesday Night Fights, Friday Night Fights on ESPN and now to be a part of it, I need to fight on ESPN soon.” 

The bouts announced will be the first on ESPN since Top Rank’s contract ran out in 2025.