Shaye Ogbonna, Kevin Hart, Don Cheadle, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, Samuel L. Jackson and Will Packer
Jamie McCarthy/Peacock via Getty Images
Atlanta, GA
How Samuel L. Jackson Used His Personal Experience in 1970s Atlanta For ‘Fight Night’: “He Kept Us in Line”
Taraji P. Henson is posing in front of the hottest seat at the premiere of Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist.
There’s a line of her Fight Night co-stars waiting for their turn to be photographed on a metallic gold tufted sofa, flown in especially for the New York City afterparty. Attendees might believe it’s an inspired set design from the limited series based on a storied piece of Atlanta history from the 1970s, but the couch has its own history. More about that later.
Fight Night follows the real events around Oct. 26, 1970, the night Muhammad Ali made a historic return to boxing after a three-year suspension for avoiding the U.S. Armed Forces draft. At the same time, a celebratory party across town hosted by an Atlanta numbers runner Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams (played by Kevin Hart) was going terribly wrong. Chicken Man’s brazen attempts to impress notorious New York gangster Frank Moten (Samuel L. Jackson), the party’s honored guest, went widely askew as they entered the house party. Chicken Man, Moten and nearly 100 other affluent guests become victims of one of the city’s biggest robbery heists.
The series was adapted from the true-crime podcast, created by Atlanta-based screenwriter-turned-podcaster Jeff Keating and film producer Will Packer and launched on iHeartPodcast in October 2020. The podcast caught the attention of Kevin Hart, who signed on to star and executive produce when Peacock ordered the series.
With Hart on board, Packer made his next call as he began building out the ensemble cast: “Sam Jackson… We went straight to the big dog,” Packer told The Hollywood Reporter at the series premiere on Wednesday in New York City. “I said, ‘Yo, Sam, we got something for you, brother. This is gonna be good. We’re all in. And if you get in, you will be our anchor, and we will be able to build an incredible cast around you.’”
Jackson’s heavyweight talent grounded the series in more ways than one. The award-winning actor has personal ties to Fight Night’s history. “I knew Sam was around in Atlanta during the time this all went down. What I didn’t know is we were shooting in the neighborhood where his wife was from, and he had got married at the church around the corner 40 years ago,” said series creator and showrunner Shaye Ogbunna. “Samuel Jackson is a part of the constituency that I feel responsible towards telling the story accurately.”
Packer couldn’t agree more. “Sam was a wealth of information throughout. He would tell us if we weren’t getting things right — if that wasn’t the watch that they wore, if that wasn’t the look that they had,” said the executive producer. “Sam was very serious about that because he lived through it. He was at college at Morehouse at the time, so he was like an extra researcher for us that made sure he kept us in line. Sam said we got this right, and that meant a lot coming from him.”
Fight Night‘s stellar ensemble reunites several castmembers, including Taraji P. Henson, who plays Chicken Man’s right hand and lover Vivian Thomas, while Terrence Howard stars as Moten’s enforcer Cadillac Richie. Henson and Howard both had breakout moments when they appeared in 2005’s Hustle & Flow and 10 years later in the TV series Empire.
Don Cheadle plays J.D. Hudson, one of the first Black detectives in Atlanta’s desegregated police force, who gets assigned to the robbery case. Cheadle and Henson led the biopic Talk to Me in 2007. Although they did not share much screen time in Fight Night, they saw each other off-set and have been in touch through the years. “It’s like home,” Cheadle said of working with Henson. “I love her. I’m a big fan of her work, and I love whenever we have the opportunity to come together again.”
Chloe Bailey
Lenny Santiago/Peacock
Back at the afterparty at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Howard stayed in character by wearing a Farrah Fawcett-inspired feathered wig while Cheadle was outfitted by British bespoke tailor Ozawald Boateng. Other Fight Night co-stars Jackson, Sinqua Walls, Chloe Bailey, Dexter Darden, Lori Harvey as well as party attendees Ego Nwodim, Amber Ruffin, Busta Rhymes and more made their way to the gold couch for photos. The elaborate decor hails from the office of former Roc Nation senior vp Lenny “Kodak Lens” Santiago, who’s taking his love of photographing the private parties of Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Hollywood.
When asked about the significance of the couch to Fight Night, Santiago said this: “The couch has become sort of an aspirational thing. I used to be an A&R in the music business, where I would sign artists, develop talent, and then I used to feature those artists and people who I like on the couch. Now it’s become aspirational, like, ‘Look, I’m gonna make it to that couch.’ Because people who are on the couch have made it in one way or another, and it doesn’t matter in what capacity, hairdresser, mechanic, director, producer… The couch has become so popular it’s taken a life of its own.”
Fight Night’s first three episodes are now streaming on Peacock, with new episodes on Thursdays.
Business
The tower at 1105 W. Peachtree St., which bears Google’s logo, recently secured a new loan at a time many landlords are struggling to do so.
1105 West Peachtree (Google Tower in Midtown) is shown Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Atlanta. The Google Tower is one of the developments done by Selig Enterprises. (Jason Getz/AJC)
It hasn’t been easy the past few years to be an office landlord.
Many tenants shrunk their workspaces coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning buildings that lost rental revenue also lost value. Interest rates surged. Many banks got gun shy over having too much money lent to office tower owners, and a whole lot of loans have been coming due.
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The tower at 1105 W Peachtree St. in Midtown Atlanta is one of the city’s newest office buildings.
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Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He’s been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people’s lives.
ATLANTA – A Mexican national will spend the next 30 years in federal prison for operating clandestine methamphetamine laboratories across the Atlanta area, federal officials announced Wednesday.
What we know:
Ramiro Contreras-Sandoval, 41, of Michoacán, Mexico, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross following his conviction for running conversion labs that housed more than 135 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine hidden in paint buckets. Contreras-Sandoval, who also went by several aliases including Manuel Santiago Vazquez and “Mirin,” was also convicted of possessing firearms as an illegal alien to protect his drug trafficking operation.
The investigation began in April 2019, when law enforcement seized the methamphetamine mixture from a conversion lab in Morrow, Georgia. Contreras-Sandoval and his co-defendant, Genaro Davalos-Pulido, fled the area after a vehicle they were using to transport the drugs was stopped by police.
The pair remained at large until the fall of 2021, when agents tracked them to a neighborhood in Norcross, Georgia. During a search of a Norcross residence, agents discovered a full-scale liquid meth operation, a loaded Beretta handgun, $84,000 in cash, and a .50-caliber rifle that appeared ready for shipment to Mexico. Contreras-Sandoval was arrested nearby with approximately $12,000 in his vehicle and pockets.
What they’re saying:
“This case should send a clear message to anyone thinking about running drugs or using deadly weapons to protect their operation: the federal government will relentlessly seek justice and protect the community from drug traffickers,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg.
“Operating methamphetamine labs is a reckless and dangerous crime,” said Jae W. Chung, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Atlanta Division. “This conviction underscores that DEA will aggressively pursue anyone who engages in drug trafficking activities that put lives at risk.”
What’s next:
Contreras-Sandoval’s 30-year sentence will be followed by five years of supervised release. His co-defendant, Davalos-Pulido, previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in October 2024.
The Source: The U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office provided the details for this article.
Things to do
Highlights include a musical from Alicia Keys, Atlanta Jewish Storytelling Festival, ‘Twelfth Night.’
The Lawrenceville Symphony Orchestra will perform works of Johann Strauss II and George Gershwin (featuring pianist Anna Keiserman) on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Lawrenceville Symphony Orchestra)
By Mary Caldwell – For the AJC
2 hours ago
From theater to music and dance to visual arts, the metro Atlanta area has a busy arts scene offering something for nearly everyone. This week, happenings include a Lawrenceville Symphony Orchestra performance featuring the iconic works of Johann Strauss II and George Gershwin as well as the second annual Atlanta Jewish Storytelling Festival. This weekly roundup will help you explore Atlanta’s arts and culture over the coming seven days.
“Hell’s Kitchen,” singer Alicia Keys’ autobiographical musical, continues at the Fox Theatre through Sunday. (Photo by Marc J. Franklin)
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New York storyteller Laura Sims leads workshops and performs stories on Saturday and Sunday during the Atlanta Jewish Storytelling Festival at The Breman. (Photo courtesy of The Breman)
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“The Family Album of Ralph Eugene Meatyard” is on view at the High Museum of Art through May 10. (Photo courtesy of the High Museum of Art)
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Sandler Hudson Gallery hosts “primary,” a solo exhibition featuring the works of Georgia artist Betsy Cain through Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Sandler Hudson Gallery)
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