Burbank, Calif.—March 1, 2015
By Jake Donovan
Big Knockout Boxing (BKB) made a splash with its debut last August, offering a refresh on the traditional boxing brand. Fighting in a smaller and circle-shaped ring without ropes, combat sports fans were treated to an entertaining show capped by Gabe Rosado’s knockout win over Bryan Vera.
The bout took place at Madalay Bay in Las Vegas and aired live on Pay-Per-View, with both factors once again in play for April 4 edition of BKB 2. Rosado returns in the evening headliner, taking on former middleweight contender Curtis Stevens who makes his BKB debut.
One major difference with the next edition of BKB is a new development geared towards gauging punch impact. The fighters’ gloves will contain a chip, that will electronically determine the speed and power with which punches are thrown.
“[W]e worked with a group from North Carolina called Fight Dynamics that invented a chip and through bluetooth technology, the chip is put into the glove,” explained Chris Long, senior vice president of Entertainment & Production for DirecTV, the primary distributor for BKB. “It’s been approved by the Commission, and it’s pretty small chip. It’s about he size of a dime.
“What happens is with the Fight Dynamics guys and our friends at Reality Check Systems we were able to build an algorithm for the chip to speak to our graphics machines in the truck to imprint time code. We’re able to put together a pretty robust graphics package that will display the speed of the pun and the pounds per inch in real time.”
The Nevada State and Athletic Commission approved usage of the chip, though not before a long, drawn-out discussion on the subject during its monthly agenda hearing held earlier in the week. The same session also revealed plans for Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions series to eventually begin using the technology, though unclear for the moment which of its events will serve as the first.
Barring a change in plans for currently scheduled PBC events in March, fans will have to wait until April to see how it works.
“[W]e will be the first ones to be able to do this live on April 4th,” notes Long. “We’ve worked the last two years trying to perfect the technology.”
###