Boxing’s most powerful punchers and most brutal bouts have always been the source of heated debates, but they may no longer need to be tinged with such subjectivity.
Earlier this year, French wearables company PIQ Sport Intelligence teamed up with the boxing apparel heavyweight Everlast on a wrist-worn sensor that can measure and analyze the frequency and ferocity of punches. This summer, PIQ has paired with European broadcaster Canal+ for real-time display of this data during the key moments of professional bouts. The PIQ Live technology debuted on June 2 and will return for the Mickael Diallo v. Bernard Donfack and Arsen Goulamirian v. Mitch Williams fights on July 1.
François-Charles Bideaux, head of sports production at Canal+, said in a statement that the aim is to provide viewers “access to a unique intimate understanding of boxing for the first time, right there on the ring to understand the true dynamics of a fight.”
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While boxing aficionados have long hailed the canon of Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier bouts or the famous fight between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns 30 years ago — known as The War for its unmatched intensity — the use of these PIQ wearables would have been able to measure the immense force and settle more definitively which flurry of jabs was fastest or which uppercut was hardest.
The sensors, which rely on PIQ’s genuine Artificial Intelligence interface, are said to characterize each type of punch, as well as its speed and power (as measure in g-forces). Real-time displays would give viewers insights into why a boxer reacted a certain way to a punch and highlight the superlative power of these fighters, just as the use of similar data in other sports has shown just how fast a wide receiver can sprint or how hard a home run is slugged.
PIQ is also marketing its boxing product to amateur consumers and fans who may spar or hit the heavy bag for fitness.
“Our ambition is to change how viewers consume sports events by bringing new data,” Cédric Mangaud, CEO of PIQ Sport Intelligence, said in a release, “while allowing them to have access to these innovations themselves in their everyday sports sessions, thus creating a community of involved sports players.”