The canvas has been laid down just north of 43rd Street. The ropes are up, the ring gleaming under LED billboards. And on Friday night, three of boxing’s most volatile and compelling stars – Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney and Teófimo López – step into what might be the sport’s strangest stage yet: a pop-up fight arena smack in the middle of Times Square.
Barely half a block fromJimmy’s Corner, more than 100 digital screens will beam the feed across the famed Manhattan tourist spot. A closed-off footprint will morph into a fight zone, cordoned by security, hemmed in by chain-link fencing and pulsing with spectacle. A ring abutting the US armed forces recruiting station will be the unlikely epicenter of a tripleheader not quite like anything boxing has attempted before.
“This is going to be very difficult for every single fighter,” said Oscar De La Hoya at Thursday’s weigh-in. “As you can imagine, there will be people everywhere, distractions everywhere.” Those distractions will be hard to ignore, but so will the consequences. For all three headliners – Garcia, Haney and López – Friday marks a pivotal crossroads. A win moves them toward megafights, championship clarity and, potentially, crossover stardom. A loss, on a night this exposed, would sting twice as loud.
It’s been nearly a year since Ryan Garcia last entered the ring – and nearly a year since that night turned into something else entirely. Hisemphatic victory over Haneylast April, which featured three knockdowns, was later overturned after Garciatested positivefor the banned substance ostarine. He was also more than three pounds over the 140lb limit. The resultwas ruled a no-contestand Garcia was suspended for a year.
Now back and making his debut at 147lb, the 25-year-old seems to understand what’s at stake against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero. “This is the weight class I belong in, and I’m excited to start my journey at 147,” Garcia said after weighing in at 146.8lb on Thursday. “I’m not here to give energy to the Haneys, because I’m focused on Rolly tomorrow. Without beating Rolly, we can’t have the rematch with Haney. I’m blessed to have this opportunity, and we’re ready to do our job.”
He’ll be in with an opponent as unorthodox as he is unpredictable. Romero, who’s 2-2 in his last four outings, has leaned heavily into his long-standing sparring history with Garcia, but isn’t playing it up anymore. “We’re both tired of watching [that video],” he said this week. “It doesn’t matter in the ring on Friday.” Then, on Thursday, he added flatly: “I’m envisioning a vicious knockout. It’s long overdue. I think we’ve been professional so far, but it’s gonna be a knockout tomorrow night.”
Garcia will reunite with trainer Derrick James, hoping the partnership brings the discipline his last few fights have lacked. “We’re like yin and yang,” Garcia said. “He’s all technique. He’s not worried about flash.”
While Garcia’s redemption arc leads the marquee, the looming subplot is Haney – still unbeaten, still defiant and still the most disciplined technician in the division. Officially, he’s facing former unified champion José Ramírez in a 144lb catchweight bout. But unofficially, everything he says – and doesn’t say – is aimed at Garcia.
“I feel better than ever,” Haney said Thursday. “This is gonna be the best performance you’ve ever seen from me. He’s gonna get hurt. It all starts with José, and once I get past José, I’m gonna get to Ryan.”
Ramírez, of course, has heard this before. The soft-spoken Californian upset Amir Imam at Madison Square Garden in 2018 to win his first world title and he believes history can repeat itself. “There’s nothing left to say,” he said. “I’ll be talking a lot tomorrow.”
The main card opens with Teófimo López, a native of Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, defending his WBO junior welterweight title against the undefeated Arnold Barboza Jr. López weighed in at 139.6lb, Barboza at 139.8 – both comfortably under the limit for what promises to be the most evenly matched scrap of the night.
“I want to fight,” said López, who donned a lucha libre mask for Thursday’s weigh-in. “I’m ready. I’m tired of everybody bullying me. No more. I’m here against all odds.”
Barboza, riding high off a recent upset of Jack Catterall in Manchester, is confident the moment won’t overwhelm him. “We’re both ready to put on a show for New York City,” he said. “I got this from the dirt. I earned this the hard way. We’re the real ‘takeover’ tomorrow.”
The undercard features Japanese standout Reito Tsutsumi making his pro debut and a Battle of the Badges three-rounder between NYPD and FDNY fighters. The whole show will start earlier than a typical card in New York with a reported hard out of 10pm.
Staging a boxing event in Times Square presentedunique logistical and regulatory hurdles, including securing permits from multiple city agencies, coordinating with law enforcement and transportation departments and ensuring compliance with New York State Athletic Commission protocols in an outdoor, high-traffic public space. Organizers also had to navigate practical challenges like constructing a secure perimeter, identifying dressing room locations and planning fighter access in an area not built for professional sport. Thousands are expected to flood the streets, though only 300 or so will watch from inside the perimeter.
That it happens to fall 10 years to the day sincethe sport’s last all-consuming spectacleis a reminder of boxing’s penchant for nostalgia, noise and theatrical excess, even when what it all means is harder to pin down.
The unique setting – part marketing stunt, part statement of intent – reflects a sport’s ongoing transformation. For all the talk of lights and spectacle, the event arrives at a time when boxing is being reshaped by new power brokers, new venues and new expectations. But for the fighters, the focus is narrower: win, and control your future. Lose, and get left behind – in a city, and a sport, that waits for no one.