Follow Us on Google
STUNNING plans are in place for the world-record boxing attendance to be smashed – with Tyson Fury wanted to fight on the card.
The current number to beat is 135,132 – set in 1941 at Juneau Park, Milwaukee when Tony Zale beat Billy Pryor. The group at the heart of the task is upstart promotional company iVisit Boxing and their head honcho Ed Pereira.
Pereira has worked in marketing and logistics in the Premier League, rugby union and more recently boxing.
He helped put together the May 2025 fight card in New York when Times Square was closed down for the likes of Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez. Now, Pereira is hoping to attract up to 150,000 fans on July 11 when they turn San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza into an open-air boxing space.
The card will be streamed on YouTube with some tickets to be handed out for FREE in an attempt to smash the 85-year-old record.
Pereira told SunSport: “When you are asking 150,000 to 180,000 people to turn up to an event, I think by telling them it’s a world record event is the key thing.
“For them they are gonna be part of history. They’re gonna be record breaking themselves and then making it enjoyable.
“So the boxing is central but also we’re making this a fun festival atmosphere that goes around that.
“I think there’s certain things that we’ve seen that we can just ramp up, so instead of just one act, multiple acts, a fan village, so instead of a couple of booths, we’re talking about a whole fan village.
“So things like that where it becomes experiential, the boxing is key and critical, and we’ll put on the biggest names in iconic locations, iconic names in iconic locations, but we also make it an enjoyable experience for the fan.”
Plans are already in place with promoters to build the dream fight card worthy of the record-breaking feat – with Fury and Garcia top targets.
Pereira said: “For me, I think the big names at the moment is Tyson Fury. He’s back and I think it’s for the big events.
“It’s something that would suit him down to the ground. Now, who he goes up against is the question, so that’s the really interesting question.
Other News
“But I think also being in California, we’ve got to look at a strong Hispanic card. A strong Mexican card is critical.
“So as a co-main event I think we need a really strong Mexican card and strong Mexican boxers if we can.
“I think you’ve got a really great mix of the Ryan Garcias of the world, which would draw a crowd.
“We saw it in Times Square, his appeal goes across the board and one of the key things that I think is my biggest challenge, which I’m really looking forward to kind of tackle, is the challenge of the general fan.
“It’s about bringing it to the guy in the pub who likes to go for a pint and making them engage with it.
“So I think what Ryan Garcia does here in the US is bring in a broader fan base as well.”
Fury, 37, retired in January of last year following two defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, 38, in 2024 but confirmed he will return to fight in 2026.
Garcia, 27, meanwhile headlined the Times Square card in defeat to Rolly Romero, 30, but is back on February 21 in a WBC welterweight world title bout.
The Manhattan extravaganza was hit with production criticism, with no fans able to attend making the product on TV resemble behind-closed-doors events during lockdown.
But Pereira, hinting at being restricted in New York, said: “What we’re gonna create in San Francisco – and in all of our other events – is an event where there are no fences up between the crowd and the ring and the boxers.
“And that is what we will do in every single one of our cards going forward. The key thing, my guiding light is to bring boxing back to the people.
“And that means no fences, that means clear line of sight for all of those 100,000 but all those people that are turning up to see the boxing.”
The San Fran event will be the inaugural in the “Iconic” series hosted by IVB with over 12 planned in 2026 – each in different cities.
