Former WBC Super Middleweight and WBA Light Heavyweight Champion, Badou Jack took another step outside of the ring and in his entrepreneurial ventures by hosting his first ever Boxing/Kickboxing card under the newly established Badou Jack Promotions & Events LLC at the Five Palm Jumeirah resort in Dubai on Friday, May 3rd.
The former 2 division champion launched his UAE based company earlier this year & plans on establishing Dubai as the “Las Vegas of the Middle East”. “Badou Jack Promotions just put on our first event featuring an amazing night of professional Boxing and Kickboxing in front of a sold-out crowd on Friday and we are just getting started” stated Badou Jack.
The event, featuring 15 fights with fighters from 18 different countries, attracted media outlets and interest from around the world. Featured Boxers such as Ashley Theophane, Oscar Ahlin, & Kickboxer Atakan Arslan were some of the notable names on the card.
The main event of the night featured up and coming Cruiserweight prospect Viddal Riley (3-0) vs Nigerian powerhouse Austin Nnamdi, who came in as a last-minute replacement for local favorite Mohammad Ali Bayat (12-1-1). Riley displayed tremendous boxing skills against the dangerous Nnamdi, cruising to a unanimous decision victory.
“Because commissions don’t exist in this region, we brought one in from a neighboring country” explained Badou Jack Promotions CEO Amer Abdallah.
“Austin’s record was 10-1 going into the fight with Viddal, but none of those had an actual commission present to report results. Even Viddal’s original opponent had well over 20 fights, but not all of them were documented properly.”
“We have some major plans to build Boxing in this region and have wonderful support in Dubai. A sold-out show was exactly the outcome we had hoped for going into this.” Abdallah added. “We are looking forward to announcing our next event in the upcoming weeks.”
