Chris Brown might have pulled the plug on his upcoming appearance at RedFest DXB next month, but it turns out the RnB star could be coming to town anyway – for a very different kind of entertainment spectacle: to fight fellow rapper Soulja Boy. In a boxing ring.
In case you missed it: following some inconsequential Twitter beef – someone liked a picture of someone they weren’t supposed to – the pair hatched an ingenious way to ensure they remain in the news cycle, by agreeing to take to the ring in a bizarre, real-life twist on Celebrity Deathmatch.
So monumentally out of hand things have got, that boxing great Floyd Mayweather has been signed up as Soulja Boy’s trainer, while Mike Tyson recently sided with the Brown camp – going as far as to release a “diss track” against Soulja Boy. Seriously.
The showdown was always said to be going down in Las Vegas, but due to rules and regulations that exist stateside – including a mandatory drug test for amateur fighters – media is now reporting the fight could never legally take place on US soil.
The celebrity gossip website TMZ is touting Dubai as the next location being “thrown around” for the three-round clash, slated to take place in March. If this is the case then one can assume that the Dubai World Trade Centre could be a venue since it hosted international boxing matches in the past.
Money is reportedly the main motivation for the fight, with both rappers likely to make a pretty penny from a mooted pay-per-view deal.
Meanwhile celebrities are rounding up to pick a camp with their wallets, with 50 Cent reportedly placing a Dhs367,000 bet on Brown.
artslife@thenational.ae
