First-Ever Live Professional Boxing Event is coming to Abu Dhabi

The first-ever live professional boxing competition is coming to Abu Dhabi.  Lion Heart Boxing Productions, a global Boxing Promotion and Sports & Entertainment Company based in Kinnelon, New Jersey (USA), will introduce live professional boxing to Abu Dhabi by producing a version of its acclaimed Thursday Night Fights series at the 5,000-capacity du Forum, located on Yas Island, in Abu Dhabi.
 
Abu Dhabi has never hosted a live professional boxing event.  All of the professional boxing events that have been produced in the United Arab Emirates to date have been hosted in Dubai with the only exception being a fight card held on March 29, 2013 at the Sharjah Sports Stadium, in Sharjah, when Dubai’s Mohammed Ali Bayat Farid (3-0) faced Turkey’s Shahin Aras in a six-rounder. 
 
Abu Dhabi’s first-ever live professional boxing event is being called Thursday Night Fights @ Yas Island and is scheduled for October 17, 2013.  It will feature top boxers from the international scene as well local and regional boxing stars.  Thursday Night Fights @ Yas Island, as the first-ever live professional boxing event in Abu Dhabi history, rightly will start with a big bang.  Thursday Night Fights @ Yas Island will see the return to Abu Dhabi of Moroccan Welterweight Champion Said Ouali (29-4) (who attended ADISE 2013) and also will feature former British Heavyweight Champion and Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion Danny Williams (46-11), all against opponents to be announced.  Danny Williams’ illustrious career includes a knockout win over former Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, Iron Mike Tyson.  Williams also served as Two Times British Heavyweight Champion (most title defenses); Two Times Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion (also most title defenses); WBO Inter-Continental Heavyweight Champion; and WBU Champion.
 
The only taste of professional boxing Abu Dhabi has ever experienced also was provided by Lion Heart Boxing Productions, when Lion Heart Boxing Productions sponsored daily boxing exhibitions at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC) featuring professional fighters free of charge to the public during the Abu Dhabi International Sports Exhibition (ADISE) 2013.  ADISE, which brought the world of sports under one roof, was organized under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, by UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation in Abu Dhabi.  Lion Heart Boxing Productions’ free daily boxing exhibition during ADISE featured amateur, corporate and professional boxer and gave the public an opportunity public to experience the excitement of boxing, albeit only in exhibition format.  Among the fighters featured during ADISE were Ihab Matbouli, Jordan’s first Olympian, and Said Ouali (29-4), the Moroccan Welterweight Champion and a top contender in his division.
 
Says, Lion Heart Boxing Promotions CFO Edward B. Mendy, “We see the potential of Abu Dhabi as Boxing Mecca and are excited to be the early movers in the space.  Unlike other foreign boxing promotions companies that come to the UAE looking for handouts and government money to fund their fights, all Lion Heart Boxing Promotions’ events in the UAE to date have been funded without a red cent from any governmental body.   We have put our money where out mouth in order to make history by promoting the first live professional boxing event in Abu Dhabi.  October 17, 2013 will be really entertaining and a night to remember.”
 
Thursday Night Fights @ Yas Island will be televised in the USA in over 100 Million American cable homes.  Thursday Night Fights @ Yas Island also may be seen on TV in the UAE nationally, in primetime, and syndicated regionally and in other markets, as feasible.    Now Abu Dhabi and the UAE will get a chance to experience why Thursday Night Fights is billed as “The Best Fight Series of all Time.” 

Contact Information

Serda Anderson

Vice President, Public Relations

Lion Heart Boxing Productions

(1) (504) 628-7866

Contact via E-mail