Dozens of vendors and hundreds of workers hired by The Ring magazine have started turning a plaza in Times Square into an outdoor boxing ring and venue ahead of an event Friday night. It’s the first time that boxing power broker and Ring owner Turki Al-Sheikh has executed one of his visions for a grandiose location to hold a boxing event, with others reportedly in the works like one on Alcatraz Island in S.F.
In this case, Ring hired London-based agency iVisit Media last December as the event coordinator for what’s come to be known as “Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves,” as part of a sponsorship deal with video game publisher SNK Corp. iVisit has since hired 47 vendors and over 1,000 crew members to help execute the project and worked with the Times Square Alliance non-profit group and several parts of the N.Y. government, including the NYPD.
The workers started in recent days setting up the temporary venue at one of the plazas right off Broadway. The main event is a fight between Ryan Garcia and Rolly Romero, and it will serve as Ring’s first U.S. card after Al-Sheikh purchased the magazine and decided to use it as a brand for events he sets up outside Saudi Arabia.
Around 360 guests will have seating around the canopied ring, there will be three public viewing areas, and electronic billboards have been purchased around Times Square to air the fights and other programming from Ring. There will also be a standalone video board, and iVisit says that in total more than 100 screens will be showing the event for two full hours. DAZN will air the card.
iVisit CEO Ed Pereira said his understanding is that this is the first outdoor boxing ever held in Times Square. He said the organizers had to apply for so many permits to make it happen that he couldn’t recall the exact number. But he told SBJ: “Completely unique. It’s a unique event in sports as a whole, not just boxing. The challenges we face on this site – the crossroads of the world – are pretty unique to the environment that we are in, and I think it’s not just the boxing world, but it’s a first for sport really. We’re producing a full world-class sporting event with a full card in the middle of Times Square. It’s incredible.”
Promoters involved with the fight include Eddie Hearn with Matchroom Boxing and Oscar De La Hoya with Golden Boy Promotions. During the duration of the event, 7th Avenue will stay open to minimize disruption to the city.
