By Andy Young & Vanessa Cavasinni
Pubs and clubs across Australia are set to enjoy a midweek bonanza with Jeff Horn taking on Gary Corcoran in a WBO World Welterweight Championship fight, which is being shown through Main Event Pay-Per-View.
Fox Sports Venues has told TheShout it is expecting fans all over Australia to head to pubs and clubs to watch the fight, and a number of venues are looking forward to this midweek boost.
Fox Sports Venues National Pay-Per-View Manager, Japhy Duldig, told TheShout: “Horn vs Hellraiser has become a massive event for sports fans all over Australia. Horn has really captured the imagination of the Australian public since his epic win over boxing legend Manny Pacquiao to claim the world title.
“Being a Wednesday night we expect fans to flock to venues after work to cheer on Horn in his bid to defend his world title and set himself up for bigger & better things in 2018.”
Speaking on behalf of the Mantle Group, Pig ‘N’ Whistle Riverside Venue Manager, Jack Nicholson, told TheShout that he is looking forward to large crowds this evening.
“All of our venues are expecting a couple of really good days of trade out of the event,” Nicholson said.
“Our venues (West End and The Charming Squire) near the Exhibition Centre are expecting large crowds before and after the fight whilst our Riverside, Fortitude Valley, Indooroopilly and Redbank Plains venues are expecting strong crowds to watch the PPV event on our HD big screens.
“Our Queen St Mall venues are expecting a strong breakfast and lunch trade the following day with people checking out of the hotels and making their way back home after the fight.”
Ged Dore, Publican at The Salisbury Hotel, told TheShout that he is planning to incorporate the fight into the venue’s regular Wednesday night entertainment.
“The host of our regular Wednesday night Drag Bingo is doing a special fight-night edition to lead into the fight before we kick off with the main event on the big screen,” Dore said.
“We always have a good mixed crowd for the Drag Bingo night and we’re expecting to get a bigger turn-out than normal for our pre-entertainment tonight.
“Major sporting events usually give us a good crowd depending on how well those events are hyped in the media so we’re expecting a large number of people in for tonight, with a good spread of business across the bar and for our new kitchen menu.”
It is a similar story from Brad Jenkins, Group GM of Drinx Group, whose venue, the Belvedere, is about half an hour north of Brisbane.
“We are showing it at the Belvedere at Woody Point. His last fight was huge, and we are expecting a busy night tonight,” Jenkins told TheShout.
Respected Queensland hotelier Brian Fitzgibbons, is another who is targeting a big crowd for the fight.
“We are showing the fight in two venues and although it has been a slow build up to tonight we have fingers crossed for a big crowd to turn up to watch the fight.”
Duldig also told TheShout that tonight’s fight rounds out a huge year for Fox Sports Venues.
“It’s been a massive year for boxing for our customers with many memorable events such as Mundine vs Green II, Pacquiao vs Horn, Mayweather vs McGregor and now Horn vs Hellraiser to finish the year,” he said.
The WBO World Welterweight title bout takes place at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre tonight, with the four-fight undercard due to start from 7.30pm AEDT. Any venues still interested in showing the fight should call their Main Event channel provider to subscribe to this event.
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