Fans don’t know what to make of this new Royal Rumble-style boxing match as it sold 85,000 tickets and drew $3.6 million in revenue!
The Royal Rumble is a WWE event where initially two wrestlers fight in the ring and one by one, more and more fighters keep getting tossed into the mix and out of the ring, till only one man is left standing.
A Spanish influencer boxing tournament tried to recreate the same idea but in boxing. Two fighters start off in the ring, but the one who wins stays in the ring and has to face a new opponent.
If it sounds crazy, because that’s what it is. Is it sport, is it sports entertainment? Even the rather vocal pro wrestling fans would be confused by this. Because if one thinks about it, what makes the Royal Rumble so much fun is that wrestlers are not limited to a particular kind of discipline.
It’s chaotic. But what’s happened here is the organizers have taken out the chaos, made into a single discipline sport and just said, ‘okay, now throw each other out’. Go figure!
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Boxing fans also seemed so confused with this idea. Some want to see YouTube influencers and Misfits to organize an event like this while other despise it. One fan wrote,
“That’s a misfits idea if I ever did see one”
Another fan was glad this idea did not make it’s way into professional boxing yet, effectively ‘ruining’ the sport,
“So sad thank god this ISNT in professional boxing”
Social Media Influencer turned boxer Salt Papi seemed keen to be a part of an event like this when he said,
“I want to do this”
This fan called out boxing for being a ‘Joke’ sport and doing anything just to generate some extra views,
“Boxing is a joke sport now”
Another fan saw the WWF connection when he said,
“This got real 90’s WWF energy”
This fan thought of an even crazier idea by suggesting a Royal Rumble, but in the UFC,
“A ufc royal rumble would be wild”
But if fans think this was the most ridiculous event of the night, wait till you hear about Will Smith performing his iconic The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air routine in front of a packed audience.
Fresh Prince Stinking up Santiago Bernabeu
La Velada is a Spanish Influencer boxing event that takes places every year. It is one of the biggest influencer boxing events in the world based solely on the amount of views it generates.
The event is so big in fact, that this year it took place at the Santiago Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid. Now, this gives them the liberty to put on some really crazy fights, like the boxing royal rumble mentioned above.
But they also got Will Smith to come in and sing the theme song to Fresh Prince of Bell-Air.
Will Smith performing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air at an influencer boxing event in Spain for an 85,000 sold out crowd pic.twitter.com/nWXY9ZJm5s
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) July 13, 2024
The American actor sang along and danced to his song with vigor and excitement, but unfortunately for him, the audience did not seem to know the lyrics to the song. Well, given that this was an influencer based event, it would be safe to assume that nobody here was born before the 2000s, so…
However, they did sing along to the part where it goes ‘Hey-ayyy’, and that seemed more than enough to keep Smith performing. Well, whatever pays the bills!
