How close was Oleksandr Usyk to fighting on an upcoming card that will attempt to break the boxing attendance record?

EXCLUSIVE: Oleksandr Usyk was in talks to headline a show that will aim to break the attendance record for boxing.

On August 16, 1941, Tony Zale knocked out Billy Pryor in the ninth round in front of 135,132 fans at Juneau Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

For almost 85 years, no event has attracted more fans than that middleweight clash. However, on July 11 at the Civic Center in San Francisco, California, USA, Ed Pereira’s iVisit Boxing, will attempt to host 140,000 people for an epic WBO flyweight world title showdown between Anthony Olascuaga and Andy Dominguez.

Ed Pereira opens up about talks with Oleksandr Usyk

Since arriving on the boxing scene following a long and successful time in rugby, Ed Pereira has made an enormous splash. After playing a key role in bringing the sport to Times Square, New York, the businessman, who’s teamed up with Sampson Lewkowicz, who helped guide the career of Manny Pacquiao, is now on the cusp of doing something truly special on the West Coast.

And while he wasn’t able to get a deal done with Oleksandr Usyk, the Welshman is still very excited to deliver a spectacular event.

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“In an exclusive interview with Sporf, he explained: I think it’s fair to say everybody knew we were talking with Oleksandr Usyk, and with his team. All respect to Usyk, for me he’s pound-for-pound one of the greatest, and it would’ve been fantastic to have got the deal done with him. But the powers that be set the prices; we all know that there are prices that we can’t get to. What we needed to do was make this event credible, because otherwise we’d have had to charge a lot of money for people just to break even.

“When the money didn’t work out for this event, we moved on. But hopefully, one day we’ll get a deal done with him and see him on one of our cards. But I’m really happy. Something the other day, that Sampson Lewkowicz said in an interview, was, ‘In the old days, cards were held up by one big name event, one big boxer, but this card, there’s loads of storylines across the board. It’s the combination of everything that made it so strong.”

Ed Pereira gives major update ahead of world-record attempt

With the full card announced and the event set to broadcast live on YouTube, Pereira is making major steps towards achieving his goal.

He enthused: “It’s going amazingly; we’ve got the tickets on sale. We’re giving away most of the tickets, because it’s free; that’s the whole point. We know we’re going to get close. The closer we get to the time, I think they’re going to go. The vision was to create a big event in San Francisco, to bring boxing back to the people. We wanted to make it as open and honest as possible, and bring as many people as we can into boxing.

“I think back to when I was young, people can see my white beard, I’m getting on a bit now, but I used to watch Chris Eubank vs Nigel Benn on free-to-air TV. It got me hooked. The bug bit, and once you’ve been bitten by the boxing bug, you can’t let go. I want to create an event where, even if you can’t afford a ticket, you can still come and watch the boxing, so I’m really excited for it. The people of San Francisco, they’re hearing about it, and they’re coming.”

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