A three-act opera to promote a boxing match? BigTime Creative Shop bills itself as “creative-led hot shop with uncontained ambition and drive, taking pride in being a comprehensive and innovative force”. This campaign idea suggests that by-line might be accurate.
The boxing match is the Riyadh Season rematch between light-heavyweight boxers, Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol, later this month. The three-act, opera is called The Last Crescendo, and it’s the story of Beterbiev and Bivol from each boxer’s rise to success, the dramatic outcome of their previous match, and finally looking forward to their coming fight. The Last Crescendo brings the rivalry between Beterbiev and Bivol to life in the setting of a grand European opera house, complete with a full symphony composed especially for the film by renowned composer, Philip Kay, and a cameo appearance by Michael Buffer, the famous ringside announcer.
The film uses theatrical and cultural metaphors to emphasise the dramatic nature of the fight, and switches between shots of symphonic crescendos, operatic singing and dramatic choral voices. The highly crafted promotion ends with the two boxers facing each other on stage as Buffer declares, “Are you ready for the Last Crescendo?” It was directed by Alan Masferrer through ProdCo. Filming took place over four days in Serbia, with BigTime working quickly to complete the shoot before the boxers were sequestered in their training camps to begin their intense preparation.
Beterbiev and Bivol previously fought in October 2024 – an event also marked by a BigTime film, called Four Crown Showdown, which was acclaimed by fans around the world.
The upcoming fight takes place at Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena on February 22, and will decide whether Beterbiev remains the undisputed world light-heavyweight champion.
In the first fight Beterbiev narrowly declared the winner on points. This was the first major fight he had won without a knockout, making the razor-thin points win controversial since Bivol had never previously lost a fight. Following that drama, boxing fans have high expectations for the rematch.
BigTime Creative Shop has also created an AI fourth judge that will score the fight, although it will not impact the official result. BigTime’s AI-powered judge was first used to score the Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury rematch in Riyadh in December. This was the first time in history that a boxing match had been scored by technology. While it had no impact on the official result, it gave similar scores to the three official human judges.
BigTime Creative Shop CEO, Mohammed Sehly, stated, “BigTime’s films are cinematic in scale and theatrical in execution. We know the boxing audience want more and so we will continue to keep pushing creative boundaries, delighting die hard fans while intriguing and exciting new audiences with promos that express the drama and exhilaration of these must watch events.”
Rayyan Aoun, CCO at BigTime, added, “Their last fight was a masterpiece – a symphony of drama, emotions and complexity – taking fans through every high and low. Yet the symphony remains unfinished. Our film aims to capture the drama in a performance that transcends the ring – blending the raw drama of boxing with the grandeur of classical music to create a theatrical masterpiece that fuses sport and art in an unforgettable way.”
The Last Crescendo film will be featured across Sky, TNT UK, DAZN Worldwide leading up to the match on the February 22.
Credits
Client: Riyadh Season
Chairman of GEA: H.E. Turki Alalshikh
Agency: BigTime Creative Shop
CEO: Mohammed Sehly
CCO: Rayyan Aoun
Creative Director: Saymon Medeiros
Associate Creative Director: Hazem Kamal
Senior Art Director: Fadi Abdin
Senior Editor: Mohamed Qarawi
Senior Agency Producer: Inas Nagy
Senior Business Director: Ziad Chehab
Social Media Director: Nael Girgis
Production Company: ProdCo
Director: Alan Masferrer
Founding Partners & Executive Producers: Ian Pons Jewell & Zico Judge
Executive Producer: Jon Adams & Amy Appleton
Head of Production: Sam Levene
Producer: Fred Bonham Carter
Creative Consultant: Alex Takacs
Post Producer: Ann Mykhailenko
Movement Coach: Charlie Mayhew
1st AD: Dennis Sonin
VFX Supervisor: Marko Zarić
Production Designer: Goran Joksimović-Joksa
Stylist: Jess Monterde
DOP: John Mathieson
Sound House: Caron
Sound Design & Mix: Gregory Caron
Music Company: KO Music
Composer: Philip Kay
Producer: Andy Oskwarek
