NEW YORK (Feb. 20 2019) – Collaborating with Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing for the fourth time in series history and returning to Long Island for the first time in more than a year, FIGHTNIGHT LIVE Powered by Everlast opens the doors to fight fans from what will be a jam-packed Paramount on Friday, Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m.
The free, interactive series – which has entertained more than 4.5 million fight fans since its platform premiere with Star Boxing in May of 2017 – visits Huntington, N.Y., as part of a FIGHTNIGHT LIVE doubleheader weekend spanning Feb. 22-23. The three-show February is part of a 2019 first quarter that showcases an outstanding six-card lineup featuring six different promotions and spanning four cities, which began with 203,000-plus views for Raging Babe’s Philly Special on Feb. 8 live from South Philadelphia.
“This Feb. 22 show in many ways epitomizes what FIGHTNIGHT LIVE is all about,” said Mark Fratto, Principal and Director of Business Development, Linacre Media. “It’ll be a sold-out show and our platform gives fight fans a chance to get in on the action even if they can’t get a ticket. The main event features two international stars and Facebook gives us a global platform where their fans can tune in. And then there’s the usual undefeated prospects and up-and-comers who we’re always very happy to showcase and give a home to as they look to build wins and a fanbase.”
On Friday, Feb. 22, the 34th edition of Star Boxing’s acclaimed fight series Rockin’ Fights 34 brings boxing talent from across the world to The Paramount. The main event is a toss-up between big-time European cruiserweight prodigies. Belgian IBO Continental Champ Joel Djeko (14-2-1, 7 KOs) will take on Italian Cruiserweight and former IBF Mediterranean Champion Simone Federici (14-1-1, 6 KOs) in an intriguing 10-round bout. The co-featured contest will witness the return of Huntington’s own Johnny Hernandez (9-4, 1 KO), who will be taking on the red-hot upset-minded Marquis Hawthorne (6-9, 1 KO) of Waco, Texas. Star Boxing prospects Terrell Bostic (3-1, 1 KO) and Alex Vargas (2-0) of Long Island and Dashaun Johns (1-0, 1 KO) of The Bronx also all take centerstage on Feb. 22 in separate bouts.
“I am looking forward to another exciting night of ‘Rockin’ Fights’ at the Paramount,” said DeGuardia. “We should have another thrilling night of fights and it’s great that fans that can’t make it to the Paramount will be able to watch on Facebook FIGHTNIGHT LIVE.”
Now in its second season, FIGHTNIGHT LIVE Powered by Everlast is the fan-friendly Facebook platform that – among other aspects – prides itself on the real-time conversations held between fight commentators and the viewing audience. FIGHTNIGHT LIVE has showcased more than 460 fighters and 16 promotions during 27 live event broadcasts from 18 different cities since May 2017, and in doing so, the interactive platform has generated the loyal interest of fight fans from across the United States and around the globe, including significant audiences in Mexico, the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe, and even fans in South America, Asia and Australia.
Since May 2017, the numbers on the 27-show FIGHTNIGHT LIVE series showed promise and potential for the new platform with an average of 167,871 views per event and more than 4.5 million total views for the franchise. Since Sept. 2018,Season II shows have averaged almost 311,000 views.
The Sept. 2018 “Kings Boxing Tuesday Night Fights” (594,447) from the Sands in Bethlehem, the Dec. 2018 “Queens and Kings of Queens Card” (379,758) in New York, the Nov. 2018 “Hard Hitting Showtime Collaboration” (372,662), the Dec. 2018 “Roy Jones Jr. Texas Throwdown” (318,886), the Oct. 2018 “Hard Hitting Philly Special” (297,545), the Oct. 2018 hour-long Bareknuckle “Freeview” (292,253), the Nov. 2018 “Titans In The Capital” (256,871), the Sept. 2017 “Real Deal Promotions: Empire State” from Resorts World Casino (225,000), the Feb. 2019 “Raging Babe Philly Special” (203,000) and the August 2017 CES “Super Saturday” from Foxwoods (203,000) all logged 200,000 or more views, and collectively the 26-show series has seen a total of more than 4,532,526 views across all devices.
In addition to the raw viewership numbers, the fully-interactive, fan-friendly productions have seen more than 388,000 collective live post engagements (more than 14,300 per show), including more than 300,000 “likes” or “loves,” more than 48,000 comments and almost 16,500 shares.
The Sept. 2018 “Kings Boxing Tuesday Night Fights” from the Sands in Bethlehem set a new bar with 594,447 views and the Sept. 2017 DiBella-CES doubleheader carried the series to three-quarters-of-a-million views in just over four months. The Sept. 2017 DiBella card saw more than 40,000 viewer interactions including almost 39,000 “likes” or “loves” and the March 17, 2018, Murphy’s “St. Patrick’s Day Clash” set a new high-water mark for shares with 2,182.
The FIGHTNIGHT LIVE page on Facebook has more than 86,000 fans and more than 93,000 followers.
Created and produced by Linacre Media out of New York City, the FIGHTNIGHT LIVE series features professional announcers, multiple camera angles, television graphics, replays and behind-the-scenes access and interviews. The streamed shows are available globally wherever Facebook is available. The initiative not only enables fans from around the world to tune in, but also gives up-and-coming fighters a global platform to showcase their abilities, gives promoters an accessible “broadcast” solution and gives sponsors the ability to reach a mass audience via branded content.