A “once-in-a-lifetime” boxing event is heading to the streets of New York – literally.
On May 2, 2025, a live boxing event titled “FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves” will transform the iconic New York Times Square into a boxing venue. The card will feature three star-studded fights, presented by The Ring Magazine, which announced the card in a public release Friday.
The fight card is headlined by a welterweight bout between Ryan Garcia (24-1) and Rolando Romero (16-2). In the co-feature, Devin Haney (31-0) takes on Jose Ramirez (29-2). The card’s opening bout will see Teofimo Lopez (21-1) put his WBO and The Ring junior welterweight titles on the line against Arnold Barboza (32-0).
The event will be available to view on pay-per-view, although the broadcast partner has not yet been announced.
“For the first time, I don’t hear it before, at least for the last 50, 60 years, something happened like this in Times Square,” chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, said in a video posted to social media Friday. “The first boxing card ever, and the first card for The Ring Magazine in America, in Times Square. It will be collaborate with SNK and the video game ‘Fatal Fury.’ It will be something amazing.
“… It will be only, I think, between 100 to 300, not less than 100, not more than 300, seats in the card of Times Square. It will be invitation for special people. It will be something amazing in one night, never happened before.”
Alalshikh said there will also be a small concert as a part of the event, with the entertainers to be named later.
The unique venue of Times Square is just one of many that Alalshikh has eyed for a boxing event. Alalshikh recently said he wants to host an event at Alcatraz, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco that has been closed since 1963.
“Sometimes I get in my mind, I want different places to do. Sometimes in mountains, maybe someday in the pyramids in Mexico, someday in Eiffel Tower in France, Colliseum in Italy,” Alalshikh told ESPN in a recent interview.
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