Fans from across the globe can catch all the action beginning at 8 p.m. ET live from Twin River Casino in Rhode Island on any device wherever Facebook is available.
“This is an exciting main event between two deserving championship contenders and there’s no better partner than FIGHTNIGHT LIVE to provide fight fans all around the globe a front-row seat to the action. Ray Oliveira Jr. has paid his dues though the years while other fighters in New England have had the opportunity to see their name in lights. Now he gets his shot to headline for the first time in his career while competing for his first championship,” said Burchfield, Sr.
Recently hitting the 1,000,000 views mark, Friday’s show rings the opening bell on FIGHTNIGHT LIVE’s Feb. 23-24 back-to-back-to-back Friday and Saturday shows spanning from the casinos of New England to the Boardwalk of Atlantic City.
“At this point, CES and FIGHTNIGHT LIVE are family,” said Mark Fratto, Principal of Linacre Media. “We know each other, we love working on shows with the Burchfield and CES Family and have relationships with the promoters and fighters that extend long past the bell. These are great people and great athletes and we’re excited as always to give them a platform to showcase their talent and tell their stories. What a great way to open a jam-packed weekend of Facebook fights.”
CES Boxing kicks off the 2018 Twin River Casino Fight Series on Friday, Feb. 23, with Fall River, Mass., junior middleweight Ray Oliveira Jr. (9-1, 1 KO) headlining for the first time in his career and vying for the World Boxing Union (WBU) Super Welterweight Canadian-American-Mexican (CAM) Championship in an eight-round showdown against New Haven, Conn., veteran Edwin Soto (11-2-2, 4 KOs), plus a six-round heavyweight co-feature between Sicilian Juiseppe Cusumano (13-1, 11 KOs) and battle-tested Pittsburgh, Pa., native Fred Latham (9-1-2, 5 KOs).
Over the first nine-plus months of programming, the numbers on the 12-show FIGHTNIGHT LIVE series have showed promise and potential for the new platform with an average of close to 90,000 fight fans tuning in per event and more than one-million fans served.
The Sept. 9 “Real Deal Promotions: Empire State” from Resorts World Casino (225,000), the August CES “Super Saturday” from Foxwoods (203,000), the Sept. CES “Twin River Twinbill” from Lincoln, R.I. (157,000) all topped 150,000 views, and collectively the 12-show series saw a total of more than 21,000 total hours of Facebook video consumed by 1,067,435-plus users across all devices.
In addition to the raw viewership numbers, the fully-interactive, fan-friendly productions have seen more than 142,000 collective live post engagements (nearly 12,000 per show), including almost 97,000 “likes” or “loves,” more than 22,000 comments and almost 6,000 shares.
FIGHTNIGHT LIVE broadcasts are viewed by 76 percent men, 24 percent women. The top demographic is comprised of males ages 25-34, which encompasses approximately 30.0 percent of the audience, on average.
The Sept. 9 “Real Deal Promotions: Empire State” set a new bar with 224,658 views and the Sept. 15-16 DiBella-CES doubleheader carried the series to three-quarters-of-a-million views in just over four months. The Feb. 10 Hard-Hitting Promotions “Philly Fight Night” show stands out individually with 3,421 live hours of content viewed, while the Sept. 15 DiBella card saw more than 40,000 viewer interactions including almost 39,000 “likes” or “loves.”
