That influencers or streamers switch to professional sports is no longer so strange to see, as has happened with football with the creation of the Kings League by Ibai Llanos and Gerard Piqué. Now, one of the sports that is going more unnoticed and that influencers have also taken over is boxing.
This Saturday the Atlético de Madrid field will receive the third edition of “La Velada del Año III” organized by the streamer Ibai Llanos. It is a new entertainment format for streaming platforms that began in 2021 and has broken audience records, reaching more than three million viewers on Twitch.
These evenings bring professional boxing to combat between content creators and add performances by singers. The 60,000 tickets to attend the event (with prices ranging from 30 to 143 euros) sold out in just one hour after it went on sale on May 4. “What an absolute barbarity. We will try to live up to it, ”Ibai said in surprise on his social networks.
The Madrid metropolitan Cívitas will open its doors at 3:00 p.m. (peninsular time) although the event will begin at 5:00 p.m. with the red carpet where a multitude of celebrities will parade. At the same time the exclusive broadcast of the entire event begins on the Ibai Llanos Twitch channel. Around 6:00 p.m. the evening will start with a musical performance, to then continue with the first fight, and so on until 12:00 p.m., the approximate time for the event to end.
The evening of the youtuber friend of Piqué will feature six boxing matches this year, among which is the female confrontation between the Mexican streamer RiverS and the tiktoker LaRivers. Another of the most anticipated fights is that of the gamer Ampeter against the singer Abraham Mateo, the latter has stated: “we are going with everything and there may be luck”, after having to replace the youtuber Papi Gavi just three weeks after the event with a health problem.
A few days after the event, Ibai has had to solve another casualty, that of the streamer Amouranth affected by a problem of ovarian failure. The Basque youtuber has confirmed that he has found a substitute -which he has nicknamed “the chosen one”- to fight against the content creator Mayichi. In addition, Ibai has stated that he will not reveal who the new opponent is “you will see who he is on stage that day,” he explained on his Twitch channel.
In turn, it will include performances by singers such as Rosario Flores, Estopa and Ozuna, and the recent confirmation of an “enigma” artist who is speculated to be Rosalía, and her fiancé, Rauw Alejandro.
In addition to all the guests who are expected to attend the event such as Belén Esteban, Fede Valverde or Rudy Fernández.
The youtuber Jordi Wild is another of the content creators who bet on this format. In February 2022, he created his Dogfight Wild Tournament, an “underground” boxing evening broadcast on YouTube, but this time starring professional fighters.
Tiktokers are not far behind. A few days ago the cover of Leganés (Madrid) witnessed the first edition of the Famma League. This evening brought together all kinds of celebrities, from television personalities such as Dakota Tarraga –former contestant on Hermano Mayor- to urban rap and trap singers such as Jarfaiter or Khaled –former member of La Mafia del Amor. These two musicians, under the category “ Rapper Fight”, they starred in the fight with the most impact on social networks. In addition, a retinue of tiktokers and influencers such as Ibelky, boyfriend of the winner of two Ídolo awards for best tiktoker, LolaLolita, or Guille Monzón, who has 100,000 followers on Instagram, participated in the event.
This new trend is a mass phenomenon due to the thousands of followers of each of the participants and the performances of the most renowned singers on the current music scene. The bouts are far from professionals, although the boxers have recognized coaches, international judges, and professional boxing regulations are followed. However, the objective is to offer a show more focused on entertainment.
The trend for content creators to switch to professional boxing was born when YouTubers like KSI and Jake Paul, known for making challenge videos, started taking an interest in the sport. In 2015, England’s KSI challenged Jake’s brother, Logan, to a fight, and although it came to a draw, the matchup generated an amazing audience. Since then, these content creators have participated in different battles, always facing other streamers or retired boxers.
