{"id":531900,"date":"2026-03-12T17:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T17:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531900\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T17:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T17:51:12","slug":"thrill-of-the-fight-2-vr-boxing-turned-into-live-spectator-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531900\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrill Of The Fight 2 VR Boxing Turned Into Live Spectator Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

When most people think of esports, they picture players sitting behind monitors tapping keyboards and controllers. At a recent Global Gaming League event, the competitors were throwing real punches instead, while immersed in VR.<\/p>\n

Misfits Boxing champion Chase DeMoor stepped into a VR ring to fight podcast host Gillie da Kid live in The Thrill of the Fight 2<\/a>, turning a virtual boxing game into a physical match played in front of an audience.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Thrill Of The Fight 2 Review: Between Realism And Fun<\/p>\n

The Thrill of the Fight 2 entered full release last month, but how does this new VR boxing sim weigh up?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The crowd jeered and cheered much like fans at a live boxing event, reacting to every punch thrown in the virtual ring. Both competitors, wearing Meta Quest 3 headsets, traded blows for several rounds before DeMoor finally landed a knockout. By the end, both fighters were breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. The crowd roared its approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the punches started flying you could feel the crowd react to every hit,\u201d said Global Gaming League founder Clinton Sparks.<\/p>\n

In that moment, VR boxing worked as a live spectacle.<\/p>\n

The match was part of an event hosted by the Global Gaming League, an organization trying to rethink what competitive gaming can look like for live audiences. Sparks prefers the term \u201cgaming entertainment\u201d rather than esports to describe the league\u2019s format. While the lineup also included traditional titles like Call of Duty, Tekken, and Tetris, the VR boxing match closed out the evening as the main event. Instead of watching players hunched over controllers, the audience saw live competitors ducking, weaving, and throwing real punches as their avatars fought inside the virtual ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted something that felt physical and exciting for people watching in the room,\u201d Sparks said. \u201cVR boxing gave us that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost esports are fun if you\u2019re playing them, but they can be harder for a live crowd to connect with,\u201d Sparks said. \u201cWith VR boxing, people immediately understand what they\u2019re watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Pro boxer Chase DeMoor and podcaster Gillie Da Kid, boxing in VR<\/p>\n

The game used in the match, The Thrill of the Fight 2, is a VR boxing game designed to track real punches, head movement, and defensive actions from players inside the headset. Unlike arcade-style fighting games controlled with buttons, competitors must physically move, throw punches, and pace themselves throughout the match. That physical element is a big reason the game works in a live event setting, where audiences can see the action.<\/p>\n

Edward Vasquez, creative director on The Thrill of the Fight 2, said seeing the game used in a live competitive setting was a different experience from watching players compete online or at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning we thought this could work as an esport because it\u2019s so tactile and easy for people to understand when they watch it,\u201d Vasquez said.<\/p>\n

For professional boxer Chase DeMoor, it stopped feeling like a novelty pretty quickly. Inside the headset, the fight turned into a physically demanding contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sweating way more than I expected,\u201d DeMoor said. \u201cYou think it\u2019s just a game until you\u2019re in there throwing punches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually a workout,\u201d DeMoor told me. \u201cYou\u2019re moving, you\u2019re throwing punches, you\u2019re ducking. After a few rounds you\u2019re breathing hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a couple rounds you forget it\u2019s a game,\u201d he added. \u201cYou\u2019re just trying not to gas out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Pro boxer Chase DeMoor, wearing a Meta Quest 3, and celebrity team owner Howie Mandel<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional fighting games where players rely on controllers, The Thrill of the Fight 2 requires competitors to throw real punches and move their bodies throughout the match. By the final rounds, both fighters were breathing heavily after trading punches in the virtual ring.<\/p>\n

For DeMoor, that physical effort made the experience feel closer to a real competition than a typical video game. As a professional boxer, he said the game captures more of boxing\u2019s movement and rhythm than he expected, even if it can\u2019t replicate the physical contact of a real fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably the closest thing you can get to boxing without taking a punch,\u201d DeMoor said.<\/p>\n

VR has struggled as a spectator esport, largely because it\u2019s hard for an audience to follow what\u2019s happening inside a headset. Boxing may be one of the few exceptions. When players are ducking, weaving, and throwing punches in real space, the action is easy to read even for people who have never used VR.<\/p>\n

Whether VR boxing becomes a regular feature of competitive gaming remains to be seen. But for one night, two fighters throwing real punches inside a virtual ring showed what immersive esports might actually look like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When most people think of esports, they picture players sitting behind monitors tapping keyboards and controllers. At a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-531900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}