At the start of the year, Mayor Daniel Lurie stood alongside an unproven boxing organizer heralding a plan to pack Civic Center Plaza with a record number of fans for a day of fights. But roughly a month before the July 11 extravaganza was set to take place, the event has unraveled.

City officials and British promoter Ed Pereira have been silent about what went wrong as they tried to stage a blowout drawing more than 135,000 spectators, with more watching on YouTube. 

The California State Athletic Commission was notified Thursday that the event had been nixed. But the writing was on the wall for months, according to combat-sports journalist Zach Arnold.

After the fight was announced, Arnold and writers behind the Substack “The MMA Draw” began investigating Pereira, interviewing sources in San Francisco, New York, and London. They say the unknown British marketing executive exploited San Francisco’s political class by promising a record-breaking boxing event. “A five-minute phone call could have immediately sorted everyone out on what was happening,” Arnold said. “No one ever did any due diligence. No one.”

Lurie appeared at a City Hall press conference Jan. 16 alongside Pereira to tout the summer marquee. The mayor said there’d be “a weeklong series of events across San Francisco and the Bay Area, culminating in a historic match right here.” Fighters weren’t announced at the time, but the San Francisco Chronicle suggested (opens in new tab) that the main event might feature heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk and former prize-winner Deontay Wilder.

Arnold claims that San Francisco city officials failed to conduct basic background checks on the organizers, allowing an inexperienced promoter with questionable financial history to advance plans that should have immediately raised red flags.

Pereira was best known for putting on a May 2025 slate of fights in New York’s Times Square. The event elicited pushback from New York police (opens in new tab) over reorganizing the highly congested area to make room for the bouts, with orange fencing blocking views for fans (opens in new tab) and few obtaining ringside access.

Pereira’s networking skills landed him influential collaborators who hoped to emulate the NYC event in San Francisco. Lacking a fight license, he teamed up with veteran promoters to get the fight approved by the California State Athletic Commission. He also enlisted the group that organizes Bay to Breakers to win over city officials.

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The event was announced in January, but Arnold said he’s seen documents showing that Pereira met with key players, including Martha Cohen, City Hall’s special events director, in 2025. Cohen, who has since retired, declined to comment.

Chris Cugliari, who coaches at Third Street Boxing in Dogpatch and serves as secretary general of the Pan-American Boxing Confederation, had never heard of Pereira at the time the fight was announced. “As somebody who’s been in the world of boxing for a very long time, I found it highly confusing,” Cugliari told The Standard.

Though authorities gave the green light, the organizers withdrew their city permits Monday. “Due to growing logistical concerns, it is with regret that the event … has been canceled,” Pereira’s company iVisit Boxing, said on Instagram (opens in new tab). The main fight, featuring flyweight champ Anthony Olascuaga defending his title against Andy Dominguez, will be rescheduled for a different venue, the post said. 

Pereira did not respond to The Standard’s questions about the event’s demise. But in an earlier interview, he said he’d hoped for a win-win outcome.

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“I’m an entrepreneur. I’m here because I still think I can make money on it,” Pereira said in a May interview with The Standard. “I want to do good by the community. I want to do good by the boxers. I want to do good by the city. But ultimately, I want to make money.” 

Arnold, who raised doubts about the event in a Substack post (opens in new tab) last month, said the incident reveals how easily well-connected lobbyists and city contractors can sidestep accountability when pursuing high-profile projects. 

“This couldn’t have happened in New York or Las Vegas,” Arnold said Thursday. “It happened in San Francisco because of who he brought into it. The top lobby, the top contractor in the city, and the mayor all went in on this guy without asking a single question.”

The San Francisco mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Before organizers pulled the plug, boxing aficionados said the lineup lacked big-name fighters who would attract a crowd larger than the 1941 bout between Tony Zale and Billy Pryor in Milwaukee, which drew a record attendance of 135,132.

“I don’t know if it’s a show that even hardcore fans would travel for without this aspect of trying to break a world record,” said Bob Newman, editor in chief of Fight News.

It became apparent in May that the initial hoopla was overblown. When organizers, including Kyle Meyers, CEO of event firm Silverback, spoke at a San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency hearing about preparations for the event, they had downsized their expectations. The reduced forecast was for a crowd of 80,000 to 100,000 — still significant but drastically scaled back.

Most tickets were given away, but better seating was available for purchase. Ticket holders may claim refunds, iVisit Boxing said. Lurie’s office demanded that redress.

The fallout extends further. Some ticket holders and relatives of the fighters purchased nonrefundable airline tickets and remain unpaid, according to Arnold.

“There are people who got hurt on this,” Arnold said. “This was something that never should have happened in the first place.”

Cugliari expressed deeper concern about collateral damage to San Francisco’s grassroots boxing community. Amateur coaches who run gyms on shoestring budgets depend on city support and credibility, he said, putting future municipal partnerships with legitimate boxing organizations at risk.

“This type of failure backing this kind of an event is going to be a stain on the grassroots community,” Cugliari said. “I always had a concern that City Hall will never want to work with boxing again after this.”