Top Rank Announces New Joint Chinese Boxing Venture

Chinese sports marketing/management company SECA has started a new Chinese professional boxing venture with Las Vegas-based boxing promotion company Top Rank. A new professional boxing league, League of Fists, will officially launch on September 4.

“League of Fists is aiming to build a league that consists of high level boxing matches in order to provide Chinese boxers and boxing fans not only a sophisticated league system but also developing their boxing experience, as well as helping Chinese boxers compete on the international stage.” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank.

For the past three years, Arum has been promoting world championship boxing events featuring Chinese boxers Zou Shiming and Yang Lianhui. He has made a huge contribution to the development of professional boxing in China. These efforts have set a solid foundation in building up professional boxing in mainland China.

Both Top Rank and SECA acknowledge that there are many world class boxers in China. However, Chinese professional boxing lacks a systematic, scheduled, professional platform toallow more and more boxers to grow. As a result, the League of Fists was developed.

The league organizers, Top Rank and SECA, are planning to host two seasons of boxing matches, the first season kicks off on September 4 in the Shanghai Mercedes Benz Arena; the second season is scheduled to begin between March and August in 2016.

Every season will be comprised of 23 rounds with 224 matches. There will be 46 rounds and 448 matches annually. Every new season will have 80 boxers participating in eight different weight classes with 10 boxers in every weight level.

There will be two rounds during each week of the season, with 20 matches overall in four different weight divisions. The matches will take place on select weekends Friday and Saturday throughout the season.

League of Fists has employed world-class production teams. The promotion operations will replicate every production detail of a Las Vegas event. No detail in staging, lighting, sound and fan experience will be overlooked. The cost of the first season of League is expected to exceed RMB10million [1.5 million USD/1.0 million GBP].

Additionally, League of Fists has forged a partnership with Shanghai Five-Star Sports, Tencent Sports and CCTV5, enabling full live coverage on TV, online streaming and mobile devices. It will also work with every major traditional media and social media to put on a multi-dimensional promotion to attract a wider fanbase.

League of Fists will include Fists Fight and Fists of Power to form a complete series of matches with the name of the match being registered as trade mark. Boxers will compete with each other in groups (Fists Fight) producing a Final Four with the boxers in each weight division.

They will then be in the crossover elimination matches (Fist of Power) to award a champion at each weight level. The champions will be awarded the WBO Greater China Champion by the World Boxing Organization, and they will have the chance to move on to fights in Macau and the USA. The 80 boxers’ results in each round will be calculated and then entered into the points and ranking system of WBO.

[Super bantamweight prospect] Yelieqiati, who participates in the first season of League of Fists, expressed that he felt extremely lucky to be one of the boxers selected to participate in the League of Fists. He always wants a prominent stage to show his talents and he wishes to be the champion on the platform of League of Fists.