First-Ever Live Professional Boxing Event Is Coming To Abu Dhabi”

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, August 15, 2013–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’s first-ever live professional boxing event is billed 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 feature former British Heavyweight Champion and Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion Danny Williams (46-11), Moroccan Welterweight Champion Said Ouali (29-4), as well as Dubai’s Mohammad Ali Bayat (3-0), 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.   Ouali, who attended ADISE 2013, has been ranked in the top ten in his weight class.

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. 

The only taste of live professional boxing that Abu Dhabi has ever experienced was in April 2013, when Lion Heart Boxing Productions sponsored daily pro boxing exhibitions at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC) 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 by UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. These daily exhibitions during ADISE gave Abu Dhabi an opportunity to experience the excitement of boxing, albeit only in exhibition format. Featured boxers included Ihab Matbouli, Jordan’s first Olympian, and Said Ouali, who slated to fight on October 17.

Thursday Night Fights @ Yas Island will be streamed live on ESPN3. Also, it will be televised in the USA in over 100 Million American cable homes. Thursday Night Fights @ Yas Island also may be seen on TV nationally in the UAE nationally, in primetime, and will 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 “The Best Fight Series of all Time.”

Tickets go on sale on August 21, 2013 and are available at the du Forum Box Office, all TicketMaster locations and online at www.TicketMaster.ae.  For additional information, visit www.YasIslandFights.com.  Follow the event on Twitter at #YasIslandFights and Like it on Facebook at YasIslandFights.

About Lion Heart Boxing Promotions (the Promoter)

Lion Heart Boxing Productions is global Boxing Promoter and Sports Entertainment Company based in the U.S. The company was set up in 2001 for the sole purpose of providing top quality events with highest entertainment value and has promoted boxing events on four continents. The Company quickly earned a reputation as a producer of high quality fights and is well respected for its fair treatment of fighters and commitment to fighters’ rights. 

EMD Sports, owned by Emirati Eisa Aldah, is the top UAE boxing promoter and will serve as Lion Heart Boxing Productions’ local UAE partner and co-promoter for the event.

About Thursday Night Fights

Thursday Night Fights is proven as the oldest continuous live professional boxing series with its genesis in the USA. The fight series was started by Jim Patton in 1988 and Lion Heart Boxing Productions has been promoting a version of Thursday Night Fights since 2001.  Each year, from October to April, Thursday Night Fights produces 24 to 26 boxing shows with the highest entertainment at the Egan Center in Anchorage, Alaska with sellout crowds.  WhileThursday Night Fights shows have been promoted in other cities, Thursday Night Fights’ long and uninterrupted production streak in Alaska dating to 1988 makes Thursday Night Fights the longest continuous boxing series in history.  Part of Thursday Night Fights already can be seen on national TV in the USA as The Alaskan Brawlers Reality Show, which debut January 9, 2013 on US cable network TruTV.  Thursday Night Fights’ 2013-14 season of will be produced Lion Heart Boxing Productions in association with Jim Patton Promotions and be televised in the USA as well.