Boxing is back in Austria!

As you know, my sports heart beats not only for soccer and tennis. Another great passion belongs to the sport in the ring – boxing. After what felt like an eternity, I finally hosted a live boxing event again in Vienna last weekend: the Bounce Fight Night. Unfortunately, also this time, due to Covid, without spectators.

For the first time since November 2019, there was boxing at the highest level in Vienna… back then with a great show and 2,400 enthusiastic fans in the audience. This time everything was different. Covid test and mask obligation were not the only things… also the location was with the Haus der Begegnung in Floridsdorf a lot smaller than the Erste Bank Arena. Sure… without an audience it also makes sense.

I already had experience with boxing events without spectators last year on 12.06. at the AGON Box Gala in Berlin. The AGON Box Gala was the first European boxing event after the first Corona Lockdown, which was organized as a pure TV event, completely without spectators. At that time, it was broadcast worldwide from China, all over Latin America to various European countries.

Full program in front of empty seats

This time there were 9 boxing fights for the TV audience to watch on ORF Sport+ and Bild-TV… 5 of them in amateur Olympic boxing and the last 4 were all professional fights. The absolute main event of this day was the fight for the IBF International Champion in middleweight between the pride of the Austrian boxing nation titleholder Marcos Nader and the challenger from Germany Alexander Pavlov.

Domestic highlights in the boxing ring

From a domestic point of view, the title defense of Marcos Nader was of course the highlight of the evening. After 10 rounds of boxing Marcos was able to win the fight clearly on points. Also the successful professional debut of Stefan Nikolic by KO in the second round is to be mentioned positively!

Even if the tingling and the atmosphere on site was really very “different”, I gave the best so that the viewers in front of the TV sets had the feeling to be there live and to really experience a real show feeling.

How did you like the boxing match? Are you already looking forward to the first live events with an audience? Feel free to leave me your opinion in a comment here!