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As boxing fans continue to wail about wanting a new Fight Night game from EA Sports — the last one was released in 2011 for the now-woefully outdated PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 — there is some, I dunno, kinda good news, I guess?
If you’re also a UFC fan, or just like EA Sports’ UFC series, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are playable characters in UFC 4:
Can’t wait to see myself in the octagon in #UFC4 big shout out to @easportsufc I’m pumped!#sponsoredbyEA Go watch the full trailer here https://t.co/IRLXWToWoz pic.twitter.com/d23xKgSTI1
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) July 11, 2020
I’m in the game like EA @EASPORTSUFC
— Anthony Joshua (@anthonyfjoshua) July 11, 2020
Go pre-order now https://t.co/wW3TCtMCvK pic.twitter.com/IjLjBZTovL
This has, of course, increased the aforementioned wailing for a new Fight Night game, but the reality of the situation seems to be that Fight Night was always an absolute nightmare to put together. UFC games are easy, UFC has all these fighters under contract, they’re far closer to being a normal league like the NFL or NBA or MLB than boxing is, where the top names are scattered across various promoters and management teams and what have you. Getting licensing to include a bunch of real boxers is really hard, and the other harsh reality is that there aren’t very many boxers right now whose presence could really sell a game, so you have to dig into legends, which they’ve always done, and then you have to negotiate with them or their estates or whatever.
So we’re probably not getting Fight Night again any time soon, but hey, you can go punch Francis Ngannou or Curtis Blaydes with Tyson Fury, I suppose.
It’d be kinda neat if these guys are actually horrible to use in the MMA game because they only know how to box, but maybe virtual Anthony Joshua has learned some high-level BJJ.