Popular former NBA player and Slam Dunk Contest winner Nate Robinson stepped into the ring with YouTube star Jake Paul over the weekend for a boxing match. It did not go as planned. The smaller Robinson was knocked out with a pretty vicious right hand at the beginning of the second round. Social media lit up with jokes about Robinson’s performance following the match, but now one porn company is offering him the chance at redemption.
CamSoda, a webcam platform used widely by adult entertainers, has put on two boxing/ martial arts cards in Thailand so far this year. Branded under the name Fight Circus, the exhibitions have featured such novelties as 3-on-1 fights, leg wrestling competitions and tag team matches. They’ve also included some actual combat sport names including former UFC Champion Ricco Rodriguez and former WBC Super Heavyweight World Champion Steven Banks. Now the company is hoping Nate Robinson will topline the next card, and executives are offering him at least $200,000 to do so.
I say “at least” because one of the points of differentiation for Fight Circus is a live tipping and bonus feature that allows fans to interact with the fighters in real time and contribute extra money for good performances. That’s part of why the overlap between CamSoda’s adult entertainment platform and Fight Circus is a little bigger than many would initially assume. It’s unclear how much extra money that could net Robinson, but something tells me the redemption part would be more of his primary focus anyway.
That was touched on in the open letter CamSoda issued to Robinson this week, written by VP Daryn Parker. It refers to “a chance at redemption” and asks for the ex-NBA player to respond within a week or so they can start finalizing plans for the next card. Here’s the closing of the letter…
What do you say? Take some time to heal up and mull things over. We’re eager to kick-start this relationship though and would love to hear back within the next week, as we’re beginning to plan the event.
Ordinarily when these sorts of offers go out, there’s not a huge chance of the celebrity (or business) accepting, although I'm sure plenty of stranded cruise ship passengers who were offered free porn accepted it. I’m not saying I would bet a bunch of money that Robinson takes CamSoda up on their offer here, but I actually think this is within the realm of possibilities. Fight Circus has featured some real names on their cards in the past, and while Jake Paul, who always capitalizes on free press, will absolutely get another major pay-per-view following his promised victory, it’s not likely Robinson would fight on the card again. So, if he would like to continue with this hobby, this could be a good place to start.
Or he could simply move on, content with the fact that he had a great NBA career. As a Bulls fan, I, of course, have to mention his spectacular playoff run with the team, especially the 23 points he scored in the 4th quarter of Game 4 against the Nets in 2013. He was on some kind of heater that day. If he decides to box again, I can only hope he finds that same success.
