Plans canceled for San Francisco fight that aimed to break boxing's 85-year-old attendance record
Tony Zale and Billy Pryor's 85-year-old boxing attendance record is safe. At least for this summer.
Ed Pereira's iVisitBoxing was hoping to surpass the feat on July 11 at San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, however plans for the potentially record-breaking event were canceled Monday, sources close to the situation told Uncrowned.
The event is off due to logistical problems, per organizers. Among those issues is the withdrawal of Silverback, the production company behind the show.
The card, which was set to be headlined by Anthony Olascuaga's WBO flyweight title defense against Andy Dominguez, will likely still move ahead on a new date at a different venue, but it will not be attempting to overtake the record Milwaukee crowd of 135,132 spectators that Zale and Pryor enjoyed in 1941.
Pereira and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Laurie first announced the ambitious plans in January. Initial reports called for boxing's pound-for-pound king Oleksandr Usyk to top the bill; Pereira, however, quickly dismissed those rumors.
It was announced last month that Olascuaga's sixth title defense would be topping the bill, with highly-ranked contender Vito Mielnicki Jr. and recent super featherweight title challenger Charly Suarez leading the supporting cast. Sampson Lewkowicz was named as the lead promoter.
Plans for such a card to have a 136,000 crowd were quickly dismissed by critics, though Pereira assured fans that the concept was more so centered around a festival rather than purely a boxing event. Pereira announced that 80% of the crowd would be non-paying and that musical attractions were planned to make up the event.
But those plans never materialized. And for now, boxing's attendance record will live to fight another day.









