ATLANTA — If anyone expected Ray J and Orlando Brown to produce a boxing classic Saturday night, they were watching the wrong fight. What they did provide was entertainment. Ray J defeated Brown by unanimous decision in their three-round celebrity boxing match at State Farm Arena, finally settling months of public trash talk in a bout that featured considerably more comedy than high-level boxing.
The matchup took place during the Zeus portion of Saturday’s event, which served as the appetizer for Claressa Shields vs. Kaye Scott later in the evening. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t particularly technical. But considering the personalities involved, perhaps it wasn’t supposed to be.
Ray J Gets His Redemption
For Ray J, simply getting his hand raised represented a significant improvement from his previous boxing appearance. He entered Saturday coming off a knockout loss to Supa Hot Fire at Brand Risk 14 in May, making the Orlando Brown matchup something of an unlikely redemption fight.
This time, Ray J made it to the final bell. Neither man appeared overly interested in treating the three-round contest like a traditional professional boxing match. The action was awkward at times, and the spectacle surrounding the fight often seemed more important than the actual punches being thrown.
Still, Ray J did enough to convince the judges and walk away with a unanimous-decision victory.
Considering the crowd inside State Farm Arena and the attention the fight generated online, both men likely accomplished what they came to Atlanta to do: entertain people and generate interest.
The fight had been building for months. Things became particularly heated during a June press conference when Brown slapped Ray J across the face with a wad of cash.
That confrontation gave the celebrity bout something resembling legitimate bad blood, even if Saturday’s action never quite matched the intensity of the buildup. Once the bell rang, however, it quickly became apparent that fans weren’t watching Ray J and Brown because they expected elite-level boxing.
They were watching because it was Ray J fighting Orlando Brown. Sometimes that’s enough.
Social Media Has Its Fun
Predictably, the internet wasted little time reacting. Highlights and commentary quickly circulated across social media, with fans poking fun at everything from the fighters’ technique to the unusual nature of the matchup itself.
And there was plenty of material to work with. Celebrity boxing has always existed somewhere between legitimate competition and entertainment, and Ray J-Brown leaned heavily toward the latter.
For Brown, this might have been enough to satisfy his boxing ambitions. Then again, given the increasingly unpredictable world of celebrity fights, nobody should completely rule out another appearance.
Big Lex and Tehneski Put on the Better Fight
Ray J and Brown weren’t even the most impressive celebrity fighters on the Zeus card. The Zeus main event featured Big Lex against Tehneski, stars associated with the network’s Baddies universe, and the women produced a much more competitive fight.
Big Lex ultimately earned a unanimous-decision victory, but both women showed more inside the ring than what fans witnessed from Ray J and Brown. That may sound harsh. Anyone who watched both fights probably understands.
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Robert LaMar is a Deputy Editor for Dice City Sports. You can follow him on X via @RobertLaMar26
