It can be hard to know what’s hyperbole and what holds water.

From the start, the May 2 card headlined by Ryan Garcia-Rolando “Rolly” Romero in New York’s Times Square was both an ambitious and ambiguous one. Eddie Hearn promised what we would see “will absolutely blow your mind.” Oscar De La Hoya projected half a million attendees, never explaining how even half that number could ever hope to see the ring in that setting. Organizers reveled in the novelty and spectacle of the event. They were notably short on details.

At Garcia’s media workout Thursday in San Diego to promote the unique “Fatal Fury” card – which will also include admittedly heady supporting matchups in Devin Haney-Jose Ramirez and Arnold Barboza Jnr-Teofimo Lopez Jnr – De La Hoya offered a bit more background on the bill, if not much.

De La Hoya, the Hall of Fame fighter and Golden Boy Promotions chairman and CEO, said it was a spitballing conversation with Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh, boxing’s deep-pocketed power broker, and others that first gave rise to the notion of a Times Square show.

“We’re all about making big events in strange places that no one has ever thought of,” De La Hoya said at The BXNG Club on Thursday. “Collectively, we thought, why not Times Square? Why not outdoors and free for the public, where everyone can watch. It’s the media capital of the world. It was about time. So Golden Boy, Turki came together and we made it happen.”

Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and SNK Corporation – a Japanese-built and now Saudi-owned video gaming and interactive entertainment company – are also part of the braintrust (and bankroll) of the card, which will be quite the high-wire act to pull off.

“You have your reservations, and you're thinking about the weather and outdoors, and things can happen,” De La Hoya said. “We’re very optimistic. We feel May 2 is going to be perfect. Hopefully, the weather is beautiful for everyone to watch. We’re expecting over 200,000 people there to watch.”

A far cry from half a million – but still, if met, an enormous figure for a boxing event. In fact, it would easily shatter the high-water mark of 135,000-plus who witnessed Tony Zale-Billy Pryor in Milwaukee in 1941.

De La Hoya and other event organizers have yet to address what should be some fairly obvious concerns – including security, emergency services, transportation and traffic interruptions, plus who-knows-how-many more particulars. Even if fight organizers don’t shout such details from the rooftops for every card, the announcement of a fight atop Mount Rushmore or at Niagara Falls would, naturally, raise questions.

What can’t be ignored is that De La Hoya and Hearn, in an increasingly frequent sight in boxing, have crossed promotional lines to put together a bill chock-full of high-quality fights. Money talks, of course – and Alalshikh’s Saudi riyals speak at loud volumes. But if you’re a well-meaning fan of the sport who sat through decades of constipated progress and self-inflicted foot shootings, this moment at least qualifies as a guilty pleasure.

“Boxing right now is thriving and on the verge of really great things,” De La Hoya said. “We have to collectively work together as a team. The whole sport of boxing has to figure out how to work together. We have to navigate how to work with every promoter.

“Right now, things are coming together for boxing. That’s what matters. We have the best fights taking place. May 2 is a global event. That’s what boxing needs. We must continue giving fight fans the best fights.”

 

Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.