Dunlop Goodrich Delivers Knockout Creative for BoxNation’s ‘Total Combat’

Sports specialist creative agency Dunlop Goodrich has completed the creative design, production and post-production for the pilot of an explosive new combat boxing show called Total Combat for BoxNation. 

Total Combat was devised by promoter Francis Warren, son of the boxing legend Frank Warren, is hosted by OJ Borg and Charlie Webster, and exec produced by Jim McMunn and Jim Bentley from BoxNation, It was filmed at BT Sport’s state of the art studio at the Olympic Park in London, and will air on 18th March at 9pm on BT Sport. 

An evolution of the Marquis of Queensberry’s traditional rules, eight fighters battle it out to become the Total Combat champion, in an all action elimination tournament, where fighters are not just against their opponent, they are also against the clock.

With six minutes on the clock, stamina, drive and conviction are essential to beat their opponent. There are no breaks, no opportunity for each fighter to regroup their thoughts or to hear words of encouragement; for those six minutes they must rely on their own physical and mental strength to overcome their challenger, as they go all out to win the maximum cash prize on offer and move on to the next round of the tournament.

The prize money on offer is linked to a countdown clock and decreases with each passing minute. This is the incentive for fighters to win the bout as quickly as possible by stopping their opponent, encouraging more engagement between the fighters and more action as they attempt to grab the maximum prize money on offer.

If there is no knock out in the round, then the winner will be judged by the referee’s decision, based on the aggression and hunger for the victory shown. With each round of the tournament, the prize money on offer increases, as does the pressure; as fatigue sets in and the fighters get closer to becoming the Total Combat Champion.

To add to the action even more, the fighters get a chance to add to their prize money for the evening further, with the randomly selected “BLITZ” period:  30 seconds where the prize money increases if one of the contestants can secure a knockout victory within that time frame. Total Combat is eight fighters, seven fights, one winner!

As well as conceptualising and designing the look and feel of the show, Dunlop Goodrich produced it, and oversaw all post-production. The agency previously produced a promo for BoxNation for the fight between Chris Eubank Jr and Billy Joe Saunders.

Daryl Goodrich, executive creative director, and founder Dunlop Goodrich, said: “This is a brand new concept, so the look and feel had to offer something genuinely different. BoxNation wanted to combine the excitement of a boxing fight with the ‘showbiz’ glamour of Vegas. We created everything, from the brand logo right through to the set and lighting design.

We utilised the BT Sport studio to its full potential, using the large, central hub to display our graphics and the fighter intro VTs. The studio is surrounded by large vertical screens, and we filled these with ominous, stormy time-lapse cloud animations, which created a really dramatic, intense atmosphere.”