NextVR has partnered with Golden Boy Promotions to give fans an exclusive virtual reality experience of WBC, Ring Magazine, and Lineal Middleweight World Champion Canelo Álvarez training for his fight May 7 against two-time world champion Amir “King” Khan.
NextVR is a Laguna Beach, CA based company that transmits live high definition, three-dimensional virtual reality content over the internet. Golden Boy Promotions is a national boxing promotional company established in 2002 by Oscar de la Hoya. It is based in Los Angeles, CA and is one of boxing’s most active and respected promoters that has presented shows in venues around the United States on networks such as HBO, SHOWTIME, Televisa, TV Azteca, Estrella TV and FOX Sports Networks.
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I spoke with the Executive Chairman of NextVR, Brad Allen about what he hopes for fans to gain from this collaboration. “We want to bring fans into the boxing ring, which is better than a front row seat.”
To execute this broadcast, NextVR set up three RED Digital Cinema 6K Professional Cameras around the ring to capture Canelo training from his gym in San Diego, CA. Fans are able to experience this for free by downloading the NextVR app for Gear VR, available in the Oculus Home app store.
For fans that want to be fully immersed they will need the Gear VR for mobile. The alternative option is to view the content on YouTube or Facebook 360, where they are able to click and move around as they wish.
This is only the beginning for the NextVR and Golden Boy Promotions as they plan to continue working together to give boxing fans a virtual experience.
“The magic of virtual reality is that after, people talk about it like they were really there,” Allen said.
Canelo Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) will defend his first title against Amir “King” Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) live at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, produced and distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View on May 7 at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.