Please let this happen. . .
After a nearly decade wait, EA Sports is finally considering looking into bringing back their beloved boxing series, Fight Night. In recent years, Floyd Mayweather wanted to do a boxing video game, but said he would only partake if there was ownership involved on his part.
Unfortunately, no third-party developers gave in to his respectable demands, as we’ve had to wait for many years. Well, this week, reports surfaced that the company is in stages of rebooting the franchise; and all it took was for a big decline in UFC’s popularity and revenue to make this happen.
With boxing in its best state in decades, popularity for that sport is at an all-time high, including stars that could promote the game. Due to EA’s partnership with ESPN, we don’t expect the UFC series to completely die out, since Disney owns that company.
However, this easily opens the door for them lock in business deals with Top Rank, Matchroom UK, Golden Boy and DAZN streaming services – home to many fighters that promoters frequently work with.
The biggest thing stopping this reboot from happening, would be Premier Boxing Champions, which holds the most fighters and top faces in the sport. Al Haymon would likely have to sign off on a deal, which is where that Mayweather ownership issue comes into effect.
The last time we saw a boxing video game, dated all the way back to 2011, with Fight Night Champion on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Below, Eddie Hearn (promoter of Anthony Joshua, Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Mikey Garcia) speaks about the situation, in a video found from last August.
August 2019 conversation. . .