Fightnight Live Is Back With Murphys Boxing Saturday Afternoon Show

NEW YORK (Aug. 14, 2019) – An outdoor Saturday matinee is on deck as FIGHTNIGHT LIVE Powered by Everlast once again partners with Murphys Boxing on Saturday, Aug. 20, to highlight undefeated New England prospects and feature former world title challenger and women's boxing star, Shelly Vincent.

Beginning at 2 p.m. ET live from The Plaza at the new MGM Resort and Casino in Springfield, Mass., the interactive, FREE Facebook series showcases the former IBA/UBF women's world champion as well as several up-and-comers looking to protect their unblemished records and represent the boxing promotion born out of the Dropkick Murphys popular Celtic punk band.

 “We are excited to be partnering with FIGHTNIGHT LIVE once again to bring another action packed card, free of charge to our many boxing fans on the FNL, Dropkick Murphys and Murphys Boxing Facebook pages,” said Ken Casey, Dropkick Murphys Frontman and President and Founder, Murphys Boxing. “Our first event at MGM Springfield in May was a total success, and now we're taking it to another level with an outdoor, matinee show.”

 “We're excited to be back with the Dropkick Murphys at the incredible MGM in Springfield this weekend. We always get great action and incredible and lively viewership for Murphys Boxing cards,” said Mark Fratto, Principal and Director of Business Development, Linacre Media. “Shelly Vincent is one of the most-recognizable fighters in the women's game today, and we take pride in making her main event and fights featuring prospects like Elvis Figueroa, Ray Jay Bermudez and Derrick Whitley available to a global audience.”

Michael Woods of Everlast “Talkbox” podcast will do blow by blow and John Vena will provide analysis ringside. (Hear Fratto talk about the card, and the FNL season 2 finale, next Friday, on the “Talkbox” podcast.”)

 Providence, R.I., native Vincent (25-2, 1 KO), the former IBA and UBF World Female Super Bantamweight titleholder who once challenged for the WBO World Featherweight championship at Madison Square Garden, brings her storied career full-circle as she meets 22-fight veteran Karen Dulin of North Kingstown, R.I., after opening her professional ledger with two-straight victories against Dulin in 2008.

Murphys Boxing prospects Elvis Figueroa (6-0, 3 KOs) of New Haven, Conn., Ray Jay Bermudez (7-0, 5 KOs) of Albany, N.Y., and Anthony Velazquez (6-0, 6 KOs) and Josh Orta (4-0, 2 KOs) – both of Springfield, Mass. – will look to preserve their perfect records on Saturday, free on Facebook. Derrick Whitley (5-1-1), also a Springfield native, and former Western Massachusetts Golden Gloves champion Roland Whitley (pro debut) will also be featured on Facebook, in separate bouts.

 “Karen was my first fight, we're bringing it back full-circle and I'm leaving it all in the ring on Saturday,” said Vincent. “Karen is my good friend but we're turning that off for a half-hour. I'm riding full-tilt for my great friend, ‘The Godfather,' the late Rollie Pier, who started me in the right direction when everything in my life was wrong. Thank you to everyone who donated to my cause and who will tune in on Saturday. I sincerely love you!”

 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 645 fighters and 19 promotions during 40 live event broadcasts from 21 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 40-show FIGHTNIGHT LIVE series have shown promise and potential for the platform with an average of 188,182 views per event and more than 7.5 million total views for the franchise. Since Sept. 2018, 23 FIGHTNIGHT LIVE Season II shows have reached more than 6.1 million fans and have averaged more than 265,000 views.

The Sept. 2018 “Kings Boxing Tuesday Night Fights” (594,447) from the Sands in Bethlehem, the June 2019 “CES Comeback at Foxwoods” (428,887), 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 May 2019 “Murphys Open MGM Springfield” (296,078), the Oct. 2018 hour-long Bareknuckle “Freeview” (292,253), the Nov. 2018 “Titans In The Capital” (256,871) and the March 2019 Murphys Boxing “St. Patrick's Day Clash” (252,065) all logged 250,000 or more views, and collectively the 39-show series has seen a total of more than 7,527,272 views across all devices.

In addition to the raw viewership numbers, the fully-interactive, fan-friendly productions have seen more than 473,000 collective live post engagements (just under 12,000 per show), including more than 365,000 “likes” or “loves,” more than 65,000 comments and more than 21,000 shares.

The Sept. 2018 “Kings Boxing Tuesday Night Fights” from the Sands in Bethlehem set a new bar with 594,447 views. 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 almost 90,000 fans and more than 99,000 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.

FIGHTNIGHT LIVE Fall 2019 dates will be officially announced in the coming weeks.