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" Evander Holyfield, the former heavyweight boxing champion, remembers the hardest hit he ever took in the ring. It came from George Foreman. &amp;quot;It was like an 80-pound sack of sand,&amp;quot; Holyfield says. &amp;quot;I wonder how hard it really was, though\u2014you know, scientifically speaking.&amp;quot; Holyfield won&amp;#039;t ever know the answer. (And if he did, he may have forgotten by now, given the number of shots that rained down on his head during his long career.) But now big data is coming to boxing. Fighters and fans of Big Knockout Boxing (BKB), the reincarnation of the failed Bare Knuckle Boxing, will know the speed, velocity, and pounds of force of every punch thrown during a bout. Wearable technology comes to boxing tomorrow, in the form of a sensor that will be inserted into the gloves of 18 pugilists fighting in the first BKB event, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, in Las Vegas. (BKB is owned by DirectTV, and so, you guessed it, this is a pay-per-view event, priced at $29.99 and airing at 10 pm ET.) Holyfield will act as a BKB commentator during the show.  BKB is a response to the explosive growth of UFC and other kinds of grisly ring fighting that have supplanted boxing in the public imagination. BKB aims to lend more speed and brutality to boxing, making it a true combat sport. The ring, just 17 feet in diameter, will keep boxers in each other&amp;#039;s faces for two-minute rounds. Holyfield notes that the small ring and short rounds favor &amp;quot;inside fighters,&amp;quot; who punch hard in tight quarters. &amp;quot;Boxing in the big ring has gotten kind of boring\u2014there&amp;#039;s not a lot of rock &amp;#039;em sock &amp;#039;em,&amp;quot; Holyfield says, noting the exception of the much anticipated May 2 showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. BKB&amp;#039;s new emphasis on data is part of its attempt to play up the ferocity. Made by South Carolina-based EFD Sports, the StrikeTec glove sensors that will be inside the gloves are about an inch square and several millimeters thick. They&amp;#039;re equipped with Bluetooth-connected accelerometers that will record metrics including speed and force, as well as punch counts and types, such as hook, jab, and uppercut.  The stats these sensors generate won&amp;#039;t be visible to spectators or TV viewers. Instead, the plan is to use the data to augment replays, providing graphics with the metrics of the punch in super slow-motion. Thirteen cameras will capture the action from multiple angles with 4K definition. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ll be able to show a replay of, say, the hardest punch in a round, with numbers attached to it,&amp;quot; says executive producer Chris Long. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;ll know the speed, velocity, and power of a punch, and the cameras can lock in so tight you&amp;#039;ll be able to see the sweat fly off of a fighter&amp;#039;s brow.&amp;quot;  Long says BKB plans to introduce a real-time read-out of the information measured by the &amp;quot;hit chips,&amp;quot; providing a more engaging experience for television viewers. The hope is that a stats-rich experience could do for boxing what it has done for other sports, and Long would know. He works under David Hill, the executive who built Rupert Murdoch&amp;#039;s television sports empire, and who oversaw the introduction of such technologies as the digitally rendered first-down line seen in NFL broadcasts. Telemetry information has changed the way fans watch Formula 1 and NASCAR, he says. And with companies like Riddell making all manner of wearable sensors, pro sports of all sorts could be on the cusp of delivering a new viewing experience driven by wearable tech. So can data save boxing? At the very least, it will make it better. &amp;quot;I actually think the technology will add a lot,&amp;quot; Holyfield says. &amp;quot;People are much smarter spectators now. They want more information, and the hit chips will give it to them. They&amp;#039;ll know if a guy takes a hard hit and tries to hid or if he takes a tap and starts running. I can tell that by looking, because of my experience. But now everyone will know, &amp;#039;You got tapped and you ran. And that&amp;#039;s not right.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/sports/a14919/boxing-gloves-sensors-data/>