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La Velada del Año
Annual celebrity boxing event based in Spain From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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La Velada del Año ("The [Fight] Night of the Year") events are a recurring crossover boxing event featuring internet streamers and celebrities created by Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos and broadcast live since 2021 on his Twitch channel.
La Velada del Año (2021)
The inaugural Velada was held on 26 May 2021 at a private venue in Barcelona. Due to restrictions derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held behind closed doors, with only a few celebrities being invited to attend. It was a modest affair compared to the next installments, with only three fights and fewer musical performances.
La Velada del Año II (2022)
La Velada del Año 2 was held on 25 June 2022 at the Pavelló Olímpic in Badalona.[1]
La Velada del Año III (2023)
The third edition of La Velada was held on 1 July 2023 at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid.[2] The event was estimated to have sold around 70,000 tickets, the highest attendance for a boxing event in Spain since 1930.[3]
The event's card suffered many changes as a result of injuries or medical issues suffered by the competitors. Mexican streamer Samy Rivers ended up competing in two fights during the show: her own scheduled match against Spaniard Marina Rivers, and later a bout against fellow Queens League chairwoman Mayichi as a last-minute replacement for Mayichi's original opponent, American webcam model Amouranth.[3]
La Velada del Año IV (2024)
The fourth edition of La Velada was held on 13 July 2024 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid,[4] and was co-hosted by streamer Marina Rivers and TV presenter María Patiño.[5] This installment introduced more variety in the match types, veering closer to professional wrestling.[6]
La Velada del Año V (2025)
In a press conference by Ibai on 10 March 2025, La Velada del Año V was confirmed to be scheduled to take place on 26 July at the Estadio La Cartuja in Seville. It was also confirmed that, after experimenting with different stipulations the previous year, La Velada would be reverting to the old format featuring exclusively one-on-one fights.[7]
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La Velada del Año was met with divided opinions among the professional fighting community. Spanish kickboxer Lara Fernandez lamented the lack of support for professional fighters, hoping people would "help real athletes instead of people clowning around".[8] Featherweight boxer Jon Fernández argued that the event was good publicity for boxing, saying that it was "sad" that other fighters did not see the opportunity that La Velada offered.[9] Sandor Martin, another professional boxer who helped organize the third edition of La Velada in 2023, stated that he "didn't imagine 60,000 people seeing boxing", but "we can't expect La Velada del Año to solve Spanish boxing's endemic problems".[10]
An article on Espinof about the box office success of Creed III also mentioned La Velada del Año, arguing that the popularity of both the film and the event did not really suggest that boxing was popular again; rather, it seemed to garner more interest as a setting than as the focus of the story. About La Velada, author Randy Meeks wrote: "La Velada's audience isn't going to switch over to 'regular' boxing because they're not interested in it: what they want is to see a macro-crossover of their idols punching one another and doing something out of the ordinary. A sort of Super Smash Bros. of streamers where what matters the least is the sport itself. [...] There is no interest in following or knowing more about other people unless the streamers turn pro. La Velada del Año isn't a hit because of the boxing, but because of the event in itself."[11]
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References
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