Top Ways to Stream Olympic Boxing Live

Top Ways to Stream Olympic Boxing Live
By: Chris Brantner

Prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics, Boxing has received plenty of attention. Some of the most talked about portions of the event have been the several rule changes. First of all, professional boxers are now allowed in the Olympics for the first time in 112 years. However, only three boxers decided to sign up for the opportunity. Another is the removal of headgear from the Men’s fights, which will surely make for more exciting fights compared to previous years.

Another big change is the scoring system being changed from a punch-counting system to the traditional 10-point must system used in professional fights. Ultimately, the biggest story in the U.S. is if the one of the six men will end the medal drought after failing to reach the podium in the London Olympics. In total, eight U.S. fighters will be attending the Olympics, which is the smallest team since 1908. Hopefully, it will be quality over quantity for the U.S. team and they can bring home some hardware.

The two main hopefuls for the United States are Men’s Bantamweight fighter Shakur Stevenson and reigning Women’s Middleweight fighter Claressa Shields. Stevenson is coming into the Olympics boasting an impressive 23-0 international record, making him a strong contender in his division. Claressa Shields has already proven herself with a Gold Medal in London and is still considered one of the best female boxers in the world. She is a solid favorite and the fighter to beat in the Middleweight division.
During the boxing competition of the Olympics, all of the TV coverage will be coming from NBC Sports Network. This is traditionally a cable network that is only available for those with a cable subscription. However, the growing trend of cable cutting has led to there being several viable options to watch NBCSN without cable. In fact, there are options to watch just about the entire Olympics without cable, as this Olympic live stream guide displays.

There are a few different services out there offering NBCSN streaming and there is no right choice. Instead, you should pick your service based on what works best for you. Some will be ideal if you just want to watch the boxing matches, but others might be better if you want to expand to watching other Olympic events or just other TV channels without cable.
Here are the top streaming options:

NBC Sports Live Extra: The service offered lets you watch NBC Sports coverage of tons of live sporting events. Since NBCSN is covering the entire Boxing event that means you can stream every fight on NBC Sports Live Extra. The streams are available either from your computer or on iOS and Android devices. Obviously, this will be a great option to watch the Boxing matches online, but the real downside is you need to authenticate a cable subscription to access the service. Realistically, you have two options. You can either ask a friend to borrow their cable login or you can sign up for our next option, PlayStation Vue, which can be used in place of a cable subscription to access NBC Sports Live Extra.

PlayStation Vue: Other than being able to access the NBC Sports app, PlayStation Vue also lets you live stream NBCSN through its own streaming interface. In addition to NBCSN, you can stream more than 50 other channels normally only available through a cable subscription. All of those live streaming channels only costs $29.99 per month. Certain areas get access to local network channels like FOX, NBC, and CBS, but the price bumps up to $39.99 per month.

Some of the notable channels on PlayStation Vue are ESPN, ESPN2, TBS, TNT, FX, and Comedy Central. If you are focusing on watching the Olympics, you can watch on NBCSN, MSNBC, CNBC, Golf Channel, USA, and Bravo. In total, it offers over 1,000 hours of coverage for the entirety of the Olympics.
Sling TV: A service very similar to PlayStation Vue, Sling TV offers tons of live coverage of the Olympics and the boxing event as well. The Sling Blue package costs $25 per month and offers NBCSN streaming, so you can easily watch the fights. In addition, USA and Bravo are included in this package for Olympics coverage.

Some locations have NBC as well on Sling TV, but that is quite limited across the U.S. If you want to include more Olympics coverage, you can add two of the add-on packages for $5 more per month each. The Sports Extra Package will get you Golf Channel and the World News Extra Package adds MSNBC and CNBC for a similar amount of coverage as PlayStation Vue for $35 per month.

Olympics Boxing Schedule by Round (via NBC)

August 6th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Light Flyweight, Lightweight, Light Heavyweight, Heavyweight

August 7th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Lightweight, Welterweight, Light Heavyweight

August 8th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Light Flyweight, Welterweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight

August 9th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Lightweight, Welterweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight

August 10th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Bantamweight, Light Welterweight, Light Heavyweight
Men’s Quarterfinals
Light Flyweight, Heavyweight

August 11th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Bantamweight, Light Welterweight, Welterweight, Light Heavyweight

August 12th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Middleweight
Men’s Quarterfinals
Lightweight
Men’s Semifinals
Light Flyweight
Women’s Preliminary Rounds
Flyweight, Lightweight

August 13th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Flyweight, Super Heavyweight
Men’s Quarterfinals
Welterweight
Men’s Semifinals
Heavyweight

August 14th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Bantamweight, Light Welterweight
Men’s Quarterfinals
Light Heavyweight
Men’s Semifinals
Lightweight
Men’s Finals
Light Flyweight
Women’s Preliminary Rounds
Middleweight

August 15th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Flyweight, Middleweight
Men’s Semifinals
Welterweight
Men’s Finals
Heavyweight
Women’s Quarterfinals
Lightweight

August 16th
Men’s Quarterfinals
Bantamweight, Light Welterweight, Super Heavyweight
Men’s Semifinals
Light Heavyweight
Men’s Finals
Lightweight
Women’s Quarterfinals
Flyweight

August 17th
Men’s Quarterfinals
Flyweight
Men’s Finals
Welterweight
Women’s Quarterfinals
Middleweight
Women’s Semifinals
Lightweight

August 18th
Men’s Semifinals
Bantamweight, Middleweight
Men’s Finals
Light Heavyweight
Women’s Semifinals
Flyweight

August 19th
Men’s Semifinals
Flyweight, Light Welterweight, Super Heavyweight
Women’s Semifinals
Middleweight
Women’s Finals
Lightweight

August 20th
Men’s Finals
Bantamweight, Middleweight
Women’s Finals
Flyweight

August 21st
Men’s Finals
Flyweight, Light Welterweight, Super Heavyweight
Women’s Finals
Middleweight

As you can tell from the schedule there will be a ton of boxing matches to watch during the Olympics. It is a fifteen day gap before the first Men’s fight in the Preliminary Rounds to the last fight in the Finals Round and all of the fights will be scattered throughout the days. Having access to NBCSN will be a huge asset to anyone who does not cable and thankfully the above options are all top quality ways to watch online.
Leave any comments or questions below!