One is a listing national sports network desperate for cheap and compelling programming that can help stem a decline in audience and balance out some $24 billion in long-term rights contracts.

The other is a formerly glamorous sport hoping to regain relevance and attract a generation of fans who have never heard of Sugar Ray Leonard or Roberto Duran.

In 2017, that makes them the perfect couple.

ESPN is four months into a four-year deal with the boxing promotion company Top Rank, which handles some of the sport’s top names — Manny Pacquiao, Terence Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenko, among others. The nature of the partnership began taking shape on Dec. 9, when Lomachenko, a heralded up-and-comer, defeated Guillermo Rigondeaux before a capacity crowd at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

ESPN and Top Rank declined to discuss the terms of the deal, but the amount the network will pay over four years is estimated to be less than the cost of a single “Monday Night Football” game.