How ‘Fight Night’ Is Showing Its Appreciation for Atlanta and HBCUs Even Before Its Premiere

“Atlanta Influences Everything” is a popular motto and movement capturing where the Southern city stands today. But Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthplace wasn’t always what it symbolizes now. Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, the Will Packer-produced limited series for Peacock bowing Sept. 6 and starring Kevin Hart with Samuel L. Jackson headlining an all-star cast, explores how a historic Muhammad Ali fight foreshadowed what the city’s impact would eventually become.

It’s an impact the Girls Trip and Oscars 2022 producer, who anchored his career in Atlanta beginning with the film Trois nearly 25 years ago, has personally experienced. Fight Night, which takes place during the time of Muhammad Ali’s 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta, is Packer’s 75th project. With that in mind, the promotional campaign for the series — which also stars Taraji P. Henson, Don Cheadle, and Chloe Bailey, with Shaye Ogbonna as its creator/showrunner — had to have Atlanta at the forefront.

 “We’ve always talked about [Fight Night] as a love letter to Atlanta, as something that pays homage to what we like to call the origin story of this city,” Packer explained to The Hollywood Reporter from Paschal’s Restaurant, one of Atlanta’s most enduring cultural landmarks that appears in the series.

To that end, “Fight Night in the 404″ roped in HBCUs, Black-owned businesses and local spots prominent in the series. Making it even sweeter, throwback 1970s pricing was in full effect on certain items at Black-owned, local Atlanta businesses during National Black Business Month on August 24. That meant two dollar chicken sandwiches and 50 cent sweet tea at Paschal’s, 25 cent donuts at Sublime Donuts, 50 cent tea options at Brooklyn Tea and 10 dollar themed cocktails, including the Atlanta Heist Mul at Copper Cove, a hot spot restaurant and lounge with a huge portrait of Hart on the wall next to the likes of Future, Usher and TI.

Coming up with a promotional campaign reflecting that love and history was a group effort that initially included himself, Universal, Peacock, Fight Night co-executive producer Kenny Burns and Ogbonna.

“The idea was floated ‘How cool would it be to actually transport [people] to that 1970 period? How about in a contemporary environment, we do our fair share to transport them back by doing this throwback pricing,’” shared Packer. “First of all, it’s amazing for a community that allowed us to come in and tell this story right. Second, it’s kind of cool because it ties in perfectly to the show.”

Acclaimed Atlanta-based artists E.L. Chisholm and Yuzly Mathurin created vibrant Fight Night murals in various parts of the city, including the popular walking and biking trail known as The Beltline and busy Ponce de Leon Avenue. A replica of the signature gold 1966 Cadillac Hart’s Chicken Man drives in the series was created far away from Atlanta by students at West Coast Customs Academy in Burbank in the greater Los Angeles area.

Ryan Friedlinghaus of Pimp My Ride fame welcomed the chance to give his students this exciting opportunity to demonstrate their skills. In a matter of weeks, they customized a blue car with blue interior to the gold version with white interior, along with “Peacock Fight Night” emblazoned on the side and “CHCKNMN” license plates.

“I started this program to give the less fortunate kids an opportunity where they could see a future,” he said. “I think a lot of the times the trades are being forgotten about or maybe not seen in a cool light where people can make a good living doing something that they love.”

The night before the throwback pricing aspect of the campaign, there was a special HBCU Fight Night screening hosted by pop journalist Speedy Morman, host of Revolt TV’s newest show Overtime Hustle. Later, Packer, Burns, and Ogbonna, joined by Fight Night producer Diane Ashford and rapper/actor David Banner, who plays Missouri Slim, also sat down with a roundtable interview with HBCU journalists. Because they all attended HBCUs as well — Florida A&M University for Packer and Ashford, Howard University for Ogbonna, Southern University for Banner, and Morris Brown for Burns —the conversation was even richer.

Peacock CMO Shannon Willett looks forward to continuing the conversation beyond Fight Night’s launch date. “We always hold back a little of our marketing so that we can see what are fans talking about, what is the community excited about, and how do you lean into that to continue conversation after it launches and really being authentic to what the conversation is,” she shared. “We have a lot planned already and then we have a lot that we will react and adapt in real time to.”