La Velada del Año

La Velada del Año ("The [Fight] Night of the Year") is an amateur boxing event featuring Internet streamers and celebrities, organized annually by Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos since 2021 and broadcast live on his Twitch channel.

La Velada del Año (2021)
The inaugural Velada was held on 26 May 2021 at a private venue in Barcelona. Due to restrictions derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held behind closed doors, with only a few celebrities being invited to attend. It was a modest affair compared to the next installments, with only three fights and fewer musical performances.

Performers

 * Blon
 * Rojuu
 * Piezas

La Velada del Año II (2022)
The second Velada was held on 25 June 2022 at the Pavelló Olímpic in Badalona.

Performers

 * Rels B
 * Nicki Nicole
 * Bizarrap
 * Quevedo
 * Duki

La Velada del Año III (2023)
The third edition of La Velada was held on 1 July 2023 at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid. The event was estimated to have sold around 70,000 tickets, the highest attendance for a boxing event in Spain since 1930.

The event's card suffered many changes as a result of injuries or medical issues suffered by the competitors. Mexican streamer Samy Rivers ended up competing in two fights during the show: her own scheduled match against Spaniard Marina Rivers, and later a bout against fellow Queens League chairwoman Mayichi as a last-minute replacement for Mayichi's original opponent, American webcam model Amouranth.

Performers

 * Estopa
 * María Becerra
 * Eladio Carrión
 * Rosario Flores
 * Milo J
 * Nicki Nicole
 * Duki
 * Feid
 * Quevedo
 * Ozuna

La Velada del Año IV (2024)
The fourth edition of La Velada was held on 13 July 2024 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, and was co-hosted by streamer Marina Rivers and TV presenter María Patiño. This installment will introduce more variety in the match types, veering closer to professional wrestling.

Rey de la Pista Match
The format for this 10-way bout was outlined during the event launch livestream:
 * Fighters will square off one-on-one in the ring following an entry order which will be drawn during the weigh-in.
 * The match will consist of twenty 60-second rounds. After the end of each round, the judges will determine a round winner, who will remain in the ring to face the next entrant in the next round.
 * If a fighter is knocked out during a round, he will not fight again for the rest of the match, while his opponent gets to rest for the remaining time of the round before the next entrant comes in.
 * The more rounds a fighter wins, the more likely he is to win the overall match and be awarded the winner's belt. The fighters who are ranked second and third overall in the match will also be awarded silver and bronze medals.


 * Round results


 * Final top 3

The points and placements obtained by the rest of fighters were not disclosed.

Performers

 * Julieta Venegas
 * Paulo Londra
 * Bizarrap
 * David Bisbal
 * Young Miko
 * Anuel AA
 * Will Smith

Reception
La Velada del Año was met with divided opinions among the professional fighting community. Spanish kickboxer Lara Fernandez lamented the lack of support for professional fighters, hoping people would "help real athletes instead of people clowning around". Featherweight boxer Jon Fernández argued that the event was good publicity for boxing, saying that it was "sad" that other fighters did not see the opportunity that La Velada offered. Sandor Martin, another professional boxer who helped organize the third edition of La Velada in 2023, stated that he "didn't imagine 60,000 people seeing boxing", but "we can't expect La Velada del Año to solve Spanish boxing's endemic problems".

An article on Espinof about the box office success of Creed III also mentioned La Velada del Año, arguing that the popularity of both the film and the event did not really suggest that boxing was popular again; rather, it seemed to garner more interest as a setting than as the focus of the story. About La Velada, author Randy Meeks wrote: "La Velada's audience isn't going to switch over to 'regular' boxing because they're not interested in it: what they want is to see a macro-crossover of their idols punching one another and doing something out of the ordinary. A sort of Super Smash Bros. of streamers where what matters the least is the sport itself. [...] There is no interest in following or knowing more about other people unless the streamers turn pro. La Velada del Año isn't a hit because of the boxing, but because of the event in itself."