In Europe they see Ibai Llanos as the new Don King: record the evening on Twitch and challenge traditional journalism

Like it or not, there is a new order in audiovisual communication and it was demonstrated, once again, last weekend with the “Evening year 2”. Geronimo “Momo” Benavides, 31-year-old streamer from La Plata, fell from his Spanish contemporary Víctor Melida Cambra, aka Viruzzoin a fight that took place in the Olympic Pavilion of Badalona, ​​in Barcelona.

Although the referee’s ruling left the Argentine a certain disgust, it wasn’t enough to take away the satisfaction of having starred in a milestone in Twitch history. The fight averaged 2.4 million spectators, in addition to the 12,000 who were at the stadium, and peaked at over 3.3 million. which equates to 33 rating points, if you want to see it that way.

It is a record that confirms that there is a generation of new communicators who are here to stay and confront traditional journalists, who often criticize them.

“They had to tell me in advance that the referee would only let him hit a corner. There’s no rule for him to get in the way. I don’t know what the explanation is.”Momo was downloaded on Twitter, although thanks to the organizers and recognition to the public and to his opponent, who congratulated and highlighted as “a very tough rival” arrived.

This violent paradigm shift has had and has a leader: Ibai Llanos. The 27-year-old Spaniard, born in Bilbao and charismatic like few others, began his journey in 2014 by broadcasting video games for fun League of Legends with his friend Ander Cortés when Twitch was only a few years old.

From there, aided by the emergence of Esports, led a group of young people who found in this social network the way to become an important place in the world of communication without the need to be hired by recognized mass media. And now the growth seems unstoppable.

They have generated a community that follows them faithfully and that in many cases has chosen them over traditional journalism, since they can find a variety of content that more than meets their request and that does not force them to integrate by looking for information in another sector.

Llanos has 11.1 million subscribers on its Twitch channel, from where the “Evening of the Year 2” was broadcast live and for free. In turn, the Argentine Martín Pérez Disalvo, aka Coscu, reaches 3.5 millionwhile Momo has more than 950 thousand and Lucas Rodríguez, who today hosts the program “Paren la mano” on Radio Vorterix, reaches 323 thousand.

With that number of followers, Ibai is the true king of streaming and, since he entered the boxing world, in Europe they already see him as the new Don King, the historic eccentric promoter who sponsored Mike Tyson in his golden years. . . This week the Marca de España newspaper joked about the situation and dedicated a cover to it featuring the young Spaniard who looked like the American. Of course, the rise of the youtuber threatening to kick the business board in Las Vegas won’t be welcomed.

The connection between YouTube and boxing

YouTube is another social network that has given rise to the enhancement of the talent of these new generations. It was born in 2005, but in recent years it has veered towards a type of content in which streams are often replicated to attract an audience that is not entirely comfortable on Twitch.

From yuyastarted when she was 17 with makeup and cooking tutorials going through auristic game and his popular telephone jokes, until he caught up with him ezekielmore recent with its classic football challenges, there are many who have managed to become very popular on this platform.

And, curiously, There has been a connection between Youtuber and boxing, with numerous fights resulting in chatter from their streaming broadcasts. There was also one in particular that aired on television, with millionaire sponsorship deals, which earned him the distribution of ostentatious prizes.

Logan Paul, 27, an American youtuber, faced multiple champion Floyd Mayweather, already retired at the time, at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on June 6, 2021. Money he dictated the pace of the fight, delivering more blows and with better effectiveness than his rival, but ultimately no winner was decided after eight rounds.

The holder of an impressive 50-0 record at the professional level praised his opponent in the following interview, highlighting him as “a tough competitor, stronger than expected”while Paolo wondered if Money he fought with all his weapons or if he let him “survive”.

The fight, criticized by a major sector of boxing fans for considering it a show put together for business, was televised by ESPN for Latin Americawith former world boxing champions Marcos Maidana and Acelino Freitas as guest analysts on Spanish and Portuguese broadcasts respectively.

It arrived in the United States through the Pay Per View payment system.free for ShowTime subscribers, while having access, through various television networks, in Russia, Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia.