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Nick Parkinson
Oleksandr Usyk has been targeted by Ed Pereira, CEO of new boxing events company iVisit Boxing, which plans a series of events this year, to make him one of the most recognisable athletes in the world.
Pereira announced on Friday that iVB’s events will be streamed on YouTube and some will be free for the public to attend, including a boxing card in San Francisco on July 11 which aims to attract a record crowd of more than 136,000. No fights have been announced yet for the iVB events, which will feature top boxers signed to various promoters.
But Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs), the world’s No. 1 heavyweight and ranked pound-for-pound king in ESPN’s latest rankings, is one of the fighters iVB is interested in featuring either in San Franscico on July 11, or in Las Vegas in April at a date to be confirmed.
Usyk, 39 on Jan. 17, of Ukraine, currently holds three versions (WBC, WBA and IBF) of the world heavyweight title while Fabio Wardley (20-0-1, 19 KOs), 31, of England, was elevated to WBO titleholder after the Ukrainian gave up the belt in April.
Usyk has not fought since knocking out Dubois in five rounds last July and has recently been linked with signing a new promotional deal ahead of fighting former champion Deontay Wilder (44-4-1, 43 KOs), 40, of Alabama.
Oleksandr Usyk eyed for plan to break boxing attendance record
“Many years ago boxing was the biggest sport in the world, boxers were paid more than Babe Ruth in America at the time, and the heavyweight champion was the king of the world,” Pereira told ESPN.
“We want to try and bring that back where everyone knows who the world heavyweight champion is.
“Many, many years ago you could stop a granny in the street whether it was in Bolton in England or Washington DC, and they would know who the heavyweight champion of the world is. Now you stop not a granny but anyone else and they will be very rarely able to tell you who the heavyweight champion of the world is, even though Usyk is a generational great. That I think is a shame.”
iVB, which has worked on organising events like the card that took place in New York’s Times Square last year [which featured Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney in separate fights] will attempt to break the gate record for a boxing event (135,132 people for Tony Zale vs Billy Pryor at Juneau Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1941, in a non- title middleweight bout is the record) in San Franscico on July 11.
A large area of San Francisco will shut for the event at Civic Center Plaza with a ring in front of the City Hall, for what Pereira says will be a “a seminal moment”.
To attract a record attendance and a staggering crowd of 200,000 which iVB is aiming for, Pereira knows the event will have to feature one of the biggest fights of the year.
“We are willing to put on the biggest fight and pay a fair amount for those fights,” Pereira told ESPN.
“Whoever fights on that card in San Francisco will be a world record holder.
“We are working with a couple of promoters at the moment [for the fight on July 11] but we aren’t announcing the fighters right now. We are working to put that card together now. We will make it affordable or free to attend and we aim to break the record for a crowd, which is a really big challenge. The majority of fans, will be free.”
iV Boxing vow to work with every promoter
The London-based events company says it will work with promoters to secure big fights for the venues and dates it is planning in the United States and United Kingdom.
“We are not a promoter, we are a large scale event organiser and have organised a lot of events in different sports, including boxing,” Pereira told ESPN.
“We want to bring boxing back to the public on a broader scale. We want to do big boxing events, and cultural moments where people say ‘I was there’. Over the last few years boxing has possibly lost a lot of casual fans because of the cost of pay-per-views and the cost of tickets to get into the venues. We want to reverse that.
“My vision is for a fans-first show. I’m not a promoter and I will bow down to others’ knowledge to promotional skills but I do know how to put on boxing events and fill stadiums. We want to make it fun and keep the focus on the fans. I want to be an open door to every promoter out there who wants to bring fighters to me. We are not going to be tied to one promoter, we are going to be open to all, and free agents.
“They will be mainly open air shows, at venues that will bring the magic back to boxing.”
YouTube broadcast deal for iV Boxing
iVB also wants to make its events — 12 are planned for this year — more accessible to watch online, thanks to a distribution deal with YouTube.
“We decided to work with YouTube on the distribution because we want to bring boxing back to the people,” Pereira told ESPN.
“Some events will be free, some will be pay-per-view, but it will not be a double pay wall as there is no subscription. YouTube is everywhere, which makes it very accessible, and if we can keep the pay-per-view to $10-$15 it will be very accessible.”
Pereira has previously worked with the likes of Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia who has been organising boxing events under the banner of Riyadh Season, and SELA [a Saudi Arabia-based events and entertainment company] in the production of events like the one in Times Square, as well as Usyk vs. Tyson Fury and Daniel Dubois vs. Anthony Joshua [both in London].
“At Times Square, walking up to it, I saw thousands of people captivated by boxing still because they were not prohibited by the price, and we hope to build on that in San Francisco on July 11,” Pereira told ESPN.