Face-Off Fight Night to boost travel, tourism in Nigeria

Tourism and inbound travels is set for a major shift as plans have been made to consistently hold Face-Off Fight Night in Nigeria, which would attract fighters and their fans from all over the world.

Kamaru Usman, UFC Welterweight Champion, the host and founder of Face-Off Fight Night said that the event which will be consistent will affect Nigerian tourism in a big way, as a lot of people will be travelling from different parts of the world to watch just as people travel to Cameron, Ghana and other countries to watch football.

“This is going to be bigger than football. We will be having people from various countries coming to watch the event. It will affect tourism, it is already changing lives. These fighters will be paid for all their efforts. This is an opportunity for them to showcase their talents.

“This cost a lot of money to put together. This is not easy. We are not cutting corners. We are not just doing something small. We are doing something major and something professional and it costs a lot of money to do something like this,” Usman said.

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In anticipation of the sequel of the Face-Off Fight Night series, 5Five 4Four Limited, the producers of The African KnockOut Show, announced the second edition of the fight series, FaceOff Fight Night 2 to hold on the 18th of March 2022 at Eko Hotels and Suites.

Powered by Kamaru Usman, the first FaceOff Fight Night was launched in Nigeria on January 7th, 2022 in a star-studded event with celebrities including Burna Boy, comedian Bovi, reality TV star Nengi Hampson, DJ Spinall, Olisa Adibua, Wofai Fada, William Uchemba, amongst many others in attendance.

Usman noted that the platform is giving opportunities to the youths, men and women to change their lives and the lives of their families forever.

“It takes time to be able to build to a place where everyone would be able to see what we are doing. For companies that haven’t really understood what we are doing yet and haven’t got on board, you better get on board before the price gets too big later,” he said.

The event which will broadcast live on cable and terrestrial channels across Nigeria and 45 other African countries is sponsored by Legend Extra Stout, Climax Energy Drink, Bet9ja and Aiico Insurance.

UFC Champion, Kamaru Usman, who returned to Nigeria to host Face-Off Fight Night 1 — the first edition of the Martial Mixed Art (MMA) fight series, revealed the vision behind this historic partnership with 5Five 4Four to grow the sport in Africa and provide opportunities for African fighters.

He said “I have thought about it over and over on how I can help. How can I go back and create opportunities for children like myself? This is the best way to do that. I was able to run into my amazing partners who had a similar vision as well, and this vision is to create opportunities to be able to get all those kids like myself to change their lives or their families’ lives”.

Kamaru went on to affirm that “it’s not just about doing a show, we want to do big things with this event, and we want to be able to change the culture. We want to be able to change the way things are right now. We are not only creating those opportunities, but we want to do it for future generations to come.”

FaceOff Fight Nights are a series of high-end MMA events organised by 54 limited, aiming to create a new trend of premium activations, merging sports and entertainment in an internationally proven concept and giving MMA fans an opportunity to watch professional fights live.