iVisit Boxing, Sampson Boxing, and Paco Presents have announced the full card for “History in the Making: World Championship Boxing,” a free outdoor event scheduled for Saturday, July 11 at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza. Billed by the promotion as the inaugural installment of its “Iconic Boxing Series” and “The San Francisco World Championship Boxing Cup,” the card is headlined by WBO flyweight champion Anthony Olascuaga’s title defense against Andy Dominguez, with a stated attendance target that, if reached, would set a record for the largest crowd ever assembled for a professional boxing event.

The promoters held a press conference Thursday, May 7, aboard the Hornblower Hybrid New York yacht as it cruised San Francisco Bay, with Hall of Fame announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. and former champion Christy Martin serving as hosts. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie was scheduled to speak but did not appear, providing a written statement instead.

Main Event

Olascuaga (12-1, 9 KOs), a Los Angeles native, has held the WBO flyweight title since July 2024 and enters July 11 on a three-fight knockout streak, with stoppages over Juan Carlos Camacho-Rivera, Taku Kuwahara, and most recently Jukiya Iimura in the ninth round at Yokohama Buntai on March 15. The 27-year-old has made five successful title defenses, the bulk of them in Japan, with San Francisco set to be his sixth.

Dominguez (13-1, 6 KOs), born in Mexico and based in Las Vegas, now trains under Ismael Salas. He is currently ranked No. 14 at light flyweight by the WBO and No. 15 at light flyweight by the WBC, and will move up from 108 pounds to challenge for the 112-pound title. The bout marks his first attempt at a major world title.

Co-Feature

Uruguayan featherweight prospect Oscar Bonifacino (4-0-1, 3 KOs) of Maldonado faces unbeaten Raul Escudero (4-0) of Navarre, Spain, over six rounds. Bonifacino, who is openly gay, is being positioned by promoters as a centerpiece of the event’s stated inclusivity theme.

“I am over the top honored to be a part of this historic event with iVB, Sampson and Paco,” Christy Martin said in the announcement release. “I am here to support boxing all over the world, but I’m here lending huge support, especially to Oscar Bonifacino.”

Undercard

The supporting card features four additional bouts:

  • Charly Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs), a top-ranked super featherweight and recent challenger for the WBO and IBF 130-pound titles, faces Manuel “Tino” Avila (25-2-1, 9 KOs) of Fairfield, California, over 10 rounds. Suarez is coming off a disputed no-contest with champion Emanuel Navarrete in May 2025, when a punch that opened a fight-ending cut was ruled a clash of heads. The WBO has since ordered a Navarrete-Suarez rematch.
  • Vito Mielnicki Jr. (23-1, 13 KOs) of Roseland, New Jersey, currently ranked No. 2 at middleweight by the WBO, defends his WBC, IBF, and WBO regional middleweight titles against Gerardo Luis Vergara (21-1, 14 KOs) of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  • Undefeated heavyweights Gurgen Hovhannisyan (10-0, 9 KOs) of Gyumri, Armenia, trained by Joe Goossen, and Uila Mauʻu (10-0, 9 KOs) of Auckland, New Zealand meet in a 10-round contest. Hovhannisyan most recently fought on the March 28 Sebastian Fundora-Keith Thurman card in Las Vegas.
  • Blake Binskin (3-0) of Kent, England takes on Dante Paris Ibarra Hernandez (3-1, 3 KOs) of Zapopan, Mexico in a six-round super featherweight bout.

The Attendance Target

iVisit Boxing CEO Ed Pereira, of England, has stated the promotion is targeting the all-time boxing attendance record of 135,132, set by Tony Zale vs. Billy Pryor at Juneau Park in Milwaukee on August 16, 1941. The Zale-Pryor record, recognized by Guinness World Records, was set at a free admission event organized by the Fraternal Order of Eagles and Pabst Brewing Company. The San Francisco event will follow a similar model. “Absolutely no charge. We want everyone to support,” Sampson Lewkowicz said at Thursday’s press conference. “To bring the best boxing possible at no cost.”

“To be part of an event that’s going to bring 100,000 live viewers, that’s a whole other thing,” Christy Martin said at the press conference. “This is going to break a Guinness World Record. Unbelievable. I’m really over-the-top excited to be part of this event.”

“This will be a show like the boxing world has never seen before,” Pereira said. “An event built for this city and its communities. San Francisco has always been a city that stands for something special, and on July 11, it will stand at the center of the boxing world.”

iVisit Boxing announced its plans for the San Francisco event in January, when Pereira stated the goal of challenging the Zale-Pryor record. According to ESPN, there were earlier rumors that unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk could headline, but with Usyk now scheduled to face kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven in Giza, Egypt, on May 23, Pereira moved on to other names before the Olascuaga-Dominguez bout was finalized. Earlier reporting also tied Deontay Wilder to the event; no agreement was reached. iVisit Boxing has separately stated plans to stage 24 boxing cards over the next 12 months.

Sampson Lewkowicz, who is credited with discovering Manny Pacquiao and has guided the careers of Hall of Fame middleweight Sergio Martinez and newly crowned three-division world champion David Benavidez, said he supports Pereira’s vision for the event. “Ed has a vision for this sport that I believe in completely,” Lewkowicz said. “When he came to me with this event, I saw immediately what it could be.”

Lewkowicz framed his involvement as consistent with his career history of backing fighters and projects others have passed on. “Bob Arum told me, ‘I don’t need him,'” Lewkowicz said in published remarks about David Benavidez early in his career. “David Benavidez went to three different promoters before going to the Virgin Islands, where I promoted. Nobody took him. I took him. And look at him today.”

Paco Damian of Paco Presents, a longtime Bay Area promoter, joined the project as a regional co-promoter. “I promoted my first boxing event in 2009 in the Bay Area, this area is my home,” Damian said. “I am humbled to be part of this event, especially alongside my long-time dear friend and partner Sampson Lewkowicz and Ed Pereira and his incredible team.”

City Support and Weeklong Programming

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who was scheduled to attend the press conference but did not appear, framed the event as part of a broader civic activation in a written statement. “San Francisco has a proud history as a world-class boxing city,” Lurie said, “and this July, that legacy continues as iVisit Boxing comes to San Francisco for a weeklong series of free, public events. The event culminates in a historic title match at Civic Center that will be broadcast to audiences around the world. By bringing world-class sports back into our communities, national events like iVisit Boxing help activate our neighborhoods, support local businesses, and show the world the energy behind San Francisco’s rise.”

The full list of activities planned for the lead-up week, along with venues and times, has not yet been announced.

Broadcast

The card will be streamed globally on YouTube at no cost to viewers, with the iVB Boxing channel serving as the primary distribution platform. No traditional broadcast partner has been announced.

Hosts

Christy Martin, the subject of a recent biographical film starring Sydney Sweeney, was a defining figure in women’s boxing during the 1990s. Jimmy Lennon Jr., a Santa Monica native whose son and daughter-in-law live in San Francisco, has announced fights including Tyson-Holyfield II and Douglas-Tyson, and worked the Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Greg Haugen card in Mexico City in 1993. “I haven’t been in San Francisco for a fight in a long time,” Lennon told KRON4. “I love this city. My son and his wife live here, and I’m just so pleased about it.”

San Francisco Boxing Context

San Francisco has not regularly hosted championship-level boxing in recent years, with most major U.S. cards staged in Las Vegas, New York, and Los Angeles. The city’s last world title fight came in December 2023, when Oakland’s Devin Haney defeated Regis Prograis for the WBC junior welterweight championship in front of a sold-out crowd at Chase Center. Matchroom Boxing chairman Eddie Hearn, who promoted the Haney-Prograis card, said following that event that San Francisco “is a great sports city, and it’s been starved of professional boxing.”

The region’s boxing history runs deep. Cassius Clay won the U.S. Olympic Trials in San Francisco in 1960 before his gold-medal run in Rome. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao both fought on a 2001 card at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, in separate bouts. The Cow Palace in Daly City hosted regular championship-level cards for decades, and the Civic Auditorium hosted significant fights through the 1990s and early 2000s. Civic Center Plaza, across from City Hall, has hosted large-scale public events but has no significant recent history as a professional boxing venue.

“San Francisco has a rich history of boxing, some great fights that go even way before Muhammad Ali’s time,” Lennon said. “I sure hope we get more big fights. Depends on if we get a big crowd to support it. That’s what we need.”

Pending Details

Venue buildout specifics, full programming for the weeklong lead-in, and additional undercard details have not yet been announced.