The Battle at the Boat was the longest running professional boxing series at any tribal casino in the United States, beginning in 1997 and continuing until 2020. In its 20+ years, The Battle at the Boat hosted over 120 fights, including five world title bouts. Fights have been broadcast on SHOWTIME, HBO, ESPN, ESPN2, FOX Sports Net, TV Azteca, and Telemundo. [1] [2]
In 1997, the Emerald Queen Casino and Brian Halquist Productions started the Northwest boxing series, The Battle at the Boat, in Tacoma, Washington. The boxing series was given its name because it began in the original Emerald Queen Casino, which was housed in a paddlewheel riverboat at the time. It has since moved to the I-5 entertainment venue location of the Emerald Queen Casino.
HBO World Championship Boxing was an American sports television series on premium television network HBO. It premiered on January 22, 1973 with a fight that saw George Foreman defeat Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Puyallup, Spuyalpabš or S’Puyalupubsh are a federally recognized Coast Salish Native American tribe from western Washington state, United States. They were relocated onto reservation lands in what is today Tacoma, Washington, in late 1854, after signing the Treaty of Medicine Creek with the United States. Today they have an enrolled population of 6,700, of whom 3,000 live on the reservation.
USA Tuesday Night Fights is a television boxing show. It aired from October 1, 1982, through August 25, 1998 on the USA Network; at one time it was the longest continually-running boxing show on television. The show debuted on October 1, 1982, as Friday Night Boxing (1982-1984), and then, Wednesday Night Fights (1984-1986), and later, Thursday Night Fights (1986-1990).
Michael Buffer is an American ring announcer for boxing, professional wrestling, and National Football League matches. He is known for his trademarked catchphrase: "Let's get ready to rumble!"
The cable television network ESPN has occasionally broadcast boxing events over the majority of its history, as part of several arrangements, including contracts with specific promotions and consortiums such as Golden Boy Promotions, Premier Boxing Champions, and Top Rank, as well as Friday Night Fights—a semi-regular series that was broadcast by ESPN and ESPN2 from 1998 through 2015.
Sergio Mora is an American former professional boxer. He is a former WBC light middleweight champion, and twice challenged for the WBA (Regular) middleweight title. He was the first winner of NBC's The Contender series.
Brian Kenny is a studio host for MLB Network and a boxing play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports and DAZN. The television face of Sabermetrics and baseball analytics, he is the host of the weekday program MLB Now, known as “the show for the thinking fan". He previously worked for ESPN, where he won three Emmys, and had his own show on ESPN Radio named The Brian Kenny Show. He is also the host of the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies in Cooperstown, New York.
Dana Frederick White Jr. is an American businessman who serves as president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a global mixed martial arts organization. In August 2019, White's net worth was estimated at $500 million.
Bruce Anthony Buffer is an American professional mixed martial arts ring announcer and the official octagon announcer for UFC events, introduced on broadcasts as the "Veteran Voice of the Octagon". Buffer's catchphrase is "It's time!", which he announces before the main event of the UFC. He is the half brother of the boxing and professional wrestling ring announcer Michael Buffer, and is the President and CEO of their company, The Buffer Partnership. Buffer holds a black belt in Tang Soo Do and has fought as a kickboxer.
Cornelius Bundrage is an American professional boxer. He is a two-time former world champion, having held the IBF junior middleweight title twice between 2010 and 2015. In 2006 he was a contestant on season two of the Contender reality TV show, where he reached the semi-finals.
Dennis Lloyd Hallman is an American former professional mixed martial artist who competed from 1996 to 2015. A veteran of 75 fights, he competed in various promotions including the UFC, Strikeforce, IFL, the World Series of Fighting, Titan FC, Shooto, and King of the Cage. He is also notable for being the only fighter other than George St. Pierre and B.J. Penn to defeat former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes twice.
Sergiy Dzinziruk is a Ukrainian professional boxer and a former WBO super welterweight champion.
Walter Wright is an American professional boxer. Walter married Melissa Wright on 11/11/2018. They have a daughter named Aya!
Joseph William Tessitore is an American sportscaster for ABC and ESPN. He leads ESPN's world championship fight broadcasts as the blow-by-blow broadcaster for Top Rank Boxing on ESPN, serves as a play-by-play announcer for Holey Moley on ABC alongside comedian Rob Riggle and NBA star Stephen Curry and announces college football on ESPN and ABC. In 2018 and 2019, Tessitore was also the play-by-play broadcaster of Monday Night Football, alongside former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten in 2018 and analyst Booger McFarland in 2018 and 2019.
Erislandy Lara Santoya is a Cuban-American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBA (Regular) middleweight title since 2021. Previously he held various versions of the WBA light middleweight title between 2014 and 2021, and the IBO light middleweight title twice between 2015 and 2021. As of May 2022, Lara is ranked as the world's fifth best active middleweight by BoxRec.
Joseph Agbeko is a Ghanaian professional boxer. He is a two-time former bantamweight world champion, having held the IBF title twice between 2007 and 2011. Additionally he held the Commonwealth bantamweight title from 2004 to 2006; the IBO bantamweight title in 2013; and has challenged once for a super bantamweight world title in 2013.
Strikeforce: At The Dome was a mixed martial arts event promoted by Strikeforce in conjunction with Brian Halquist Productions. The event took place at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington on Saturday, February 23, 2008.
Four bantamweight boxers participated in The Bantamweight Tournament: Winner Takes All, one of the bouts being Yonnhy Perez vs. Joseph Agbeko II. The tournament itself was a two-stage, single-elimination tournament of 118-pounders – which began with two semifinal bouts on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010, in the Battle at the Boat series from the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash.
Iron Mike Productions was a boxing promotion company, based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, United States. Acquinity Sports was founded in 2012 by Garry Jonas, CEO of Acquinity Interactive which abruptly ceased operations in 2013 after an FTC complaint. Jonas partnered with former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in 2013, and changed the name of the company to Iron Mike Productions. They represented a diverse roster of boxers., including two-time Iraq War Veteran and undefeated Sammy Vazquez, Jr., Ukrainian amateur world champion, Ivgen Khytrov, super bantamweight champion JC Payano, and top U.S. amateur prospect, Erickson Lubin.
Emerald Resort & Casino is a hotel and casino located at a private estate on the banks of the Vaal River in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. The casino opened in 1997.