If you blinked, you might have missed Daniel Jacobs' one minute and 25-second technical knockout (TKO) of Peter Quillin last Saturday night in their Battle For Brooklyn boxing match on Showtime.
Well, Showtime wants you to experience the bout again ... but in virtual reality. On Tuesday, Showtime Sports released the short boxing match on YouTube, but via a special 360-degree, virtual reality treatment, immersing fight fans in the action, almost as if they're on the receiving end of rapid-fire blows from WBA middleweight world champion, 'The Miracle Man' Daniel Jacobs.
Showtime claims this marks "the first time ever" that a boxing match has been released in its entirety in virtual reality. With its entirety accounting for just a few minutes, including the boxers' ring entrances, perhaps this was the ideal match for Showtime to test out virtual reality technology with boxing because it was short and to the punch — pun intended — and not obstrusive.
"The all-Brooklyn main event has been made available in 360 video from ringside, giving fans an unprecedented boxing experience," Showtime said in a press release statement, as reported by Tech Crunch. "The VR video engrosses viewers in the matchup of the top middleweights, facing off in the prime of their career, where Brooklyn's Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) won the Battle For Brooklyn."
You can watch the 360-degree, virtual reality experience of the Jacobs-Quillin bout below.
If this video is received well, perhaps Showtime — as well as its competitor HBO, as the top hosts of boxing bouts — should seriously consider giving the 360-degree, virtual reality treatment to all its fights.
As scintillating as a boxing knockout is on its own, imagine consistently being able to see it in virtual reality.
That would revamp the sweet science as boxing fans know it.
