First an arcade, now . Atlantic City hotel ups its game away from gambling

By Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City continues to expand on non-gaming attractions by announcing a 12 fight boxing series during a press conference Tuesday morning.

Hard Hitting Promotions, out of Philadelphia, announced that the series, dubbed Boardwalk Boxing, will bring back a sport to a city that hosted some of the biggest fights back in its heyday.

Legends like Arturo Gatti, Roberto Duran, and Mike Tyson are just a few fighters that made Atlantic City the destination for boxing.

“If you’re going to talk about Atlantic City boxing you’re going to talk about the Showboat and that’s the vision, that’s the goal, to make this place the mecca of boxing in the long legacy of Atlantic City boxing,” said Manny Rivera, a partner with Hard Hitting promotions.

Standing in front of a boxing ring at Lucky Snake Arcade and Sports Bar, Rivera was all smiles as he talked about bringing the culture of boxing to Showboat. The Philadelphia said the goal is not just to represent fighters but to build fighters and showcase the next superstars of boxing eventually putting them in a position for a title fight.

“It’s literally to be the Blue Horizon for Atlantic City,” he said, referring to the historic Philadelphia boxing venue.

The initial fight card to take place on Saturday, July 31, includes Christian Tapia, a Super from Puerto Rico with an 11-0 record and 10 knockouts, Dylan Price, of Philadelphia, a with a 13-0 record including 10 knockouts, and Atlantic City’s own Anthony Young a with a record of 21-2 that includes 8 knockouts.

“I’m just very excited to be a part of this,” Young said. “You know fighting at the crib is always a good thing for me. I’m just happy to come out here and be able to put on a show July 31.”

Young’s last fight was a 2019 third round knockout of former world champion Sadam Ali in Las Vegas.

According to Brandon Dixon, president of Tower Investments which oversees Showboat, bringing back boxing was always the goal when they opened the property.

“One of our goals as a team was to really make an emphasis on bringing not just boxing back, but all recreational fighting. So we have Muay Thai, there’s kickboxing, you name it. There’s all types of tournament’s but we really are putting an emphasis on boxing,” he said. The matches for Boardwalk Boxing will be either upstairs in the Bourbon Room, the former House of Blues, or in the Carousel Room. Earlier this month Showboat hosted a match between former NBA star Lamar Odem and former pop star Aaron Carter.

After July the next show will be August 28 and another one at the beginning of November. The series will start back up in February.

“This is boxing, this is professional boxing,” Rivera said.

Showboat will also feature amateur boxers where people will be able to watch them go through their workouts during their training camps at the boxing ring at Lucky Snake.

Rivera said that they are looking to expand into a bigger venue and have the capacity to hold world and major boxing events that will attract bigger promoters like Top Rank or Golden Boy which hopefully will lead networks like Showtime and ESPN of the world to join in.

“This is going to be the place where you’re going to want to be,” said Rivera.