Anybody else remember "KO Nation"?

[GorillaBongsoon]

the **** was terrible but ettienne-brewster was a pretty good scrap

[ИATAS]

Wasn't "Ed Lover" or "Biz Markie" also on it? I think it was Ed, but for some reason I keep thinking it might've been the Biz.

I'm going to bump this thread tomorrow when more of the regulars are on.

Not many of the NSB crowd knew boxing existed before De La Hoya/Mayweather.

yep, I have this fight on DVD. Its basically like fight night round 2 but instead of Tigger it's ed lover lol.

It wasn't all that bad, i see what they were trying to accomplish there (appeal to african americans). It's not as bad as say when McDonalds tries to appeal to the hip hop crowd, for example:

[βetamax]

Here's a little exert from an older Ring ****zine article about KO Nation:

"...Because years earlier, DiBella engaged Dash and Jay-Z in a conversation about cross-marketing boxing and hip-hop when the three found themselves on a plane together. DiBella was cool to the idea then, but the timing of the discussions requires elaboration: It was December 2000, and DiBella was freshly departed from his job overseeing HBO boxing programming. One of his final projects before becoming a promoter was a conceptual blend of hip-hop and boxing called KO Nation.

The show fell flat. Designed as a complement to the network's Wold Championship Boxing and Boxing After Dark series, boxing fans were understanding when KO Nation fights didn't equal those of HBO's bigger-budget series, particularly when the results often exceeded expectations.

Ratings were another story. Hip-hop fans proved unresponsive to the idea of in your-face representation of their genre by past-prime deejay Ed Lover. KO Nation was abandoned in 2001, after less than two years. DiBella was not around for the funeral, but accepts responsibility for the carcass.

"When we came up with the idea of KO Nation, we were primarily a bunch of middle-aged white guys, and so were the producers. The show lacked authenticity," he said.

Promoter Cedric Kushner's short-lived Thunderbox series, which also incorporated hip-hop style with three-round fights, proved traditional fans wouldn't buy a series that strayed too far from boxing's center. In a different way, but with much the same result, KO Nation fell flat with the hip-hop audience that regarded the show as a caricature.

"When they did hip-hop boxing with KO Nation , they kind of overdid it," Judah said. "Hip-hop plays itself. You can't play hip-hop, it plays itself. You know what I'm saying?"

[Tonezzz]

ko nation

I just found this thread after watching Ronald Wtight on KO Nation

[-Antonio-]

Mayweather vs. Augustus was on here I think. I remember not thinking it was HBO at first. Makes me want to watch it again.