This weekend’s big fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito had the boxing world, or whatever’s left of it, all fired up.  Manny is one of the few boxers left who can actually get people excited about the sport, and his unanimous decision victory over “The Tijuana Tornado” only raised his stock even further.  The only other thing in the world of pugilism that can grab the interest of any but the hardest of hardcore boxing fans is EA’s Fight Night series.  The next entry in the franchise is Fight Night Champion, billed as the first M-Rated sports simulation, and a new trailer has emerged, showing just how cinematic and brutal it will be.

In addition to plenty of blood, the trailer shows off a few quick glimpses of new training mini-games and first-person boxing.  Along with some created characters, which seem to be the focus of Champion, there are also a few returning fighters, like Mike Tyson, Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier, Roy Jones Jr., and the baddest man in the world who weighs less than an average American 12-year old, Manny Pacquiao.  While every frame of the video is reported to be “actual game footage,” it’s highly cinematic, seeming more like a movie trailer than a game trailer. 

I was a huge fan of the last two Fight Night games, and I’m extremely excited about the next offering.  My biggest problems with Round 3 and Round 4 were the threadbare career modes and repetitive, boring training sequences.  With Champion, EA is looking to seriously improve these aspects, and I can’t wait to see how they address them.