The promotion’s first New York card lands a double main event of Brooklyn fighters. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 19.
Zuffa Boxing put names to its July 26 New York debut on Tuesday, confirming a double main event for the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden card that until now had been carried only by reporting and a teaser. Brooklyn’s own Edgar Berlanga and Richardson Hitchins will headline in separate bouts on an eight-fight card, with Berlanga facing Montreal’s Steven Butler and Hitchins moving up to welterweight against Mexico’s Ricardo Salas.
The event, branded Zuffa Boxing 09, is set for the smaller of Madison Square Garden’s two main rooms, the building that has run championship boxing for decades through its Felt Forum and Hulu Theater eras. The promotion set the date and venue back in late May with a poster and a promotional reel that contained no fighters. Tuesday’s post is the first official reveal of any matchups for the show. The main card begins at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT.
Berlanga returns home against a live puncher
Berlanga (23-2, 18 KOs) makes his Zuffa Boxing debut in a 10-round super middleweight bout, roughly a year after his last appearance. The 29-year-old Puerto Rican, who opened his career with 16 consecutive first-round knockouts, has not fought since July 2025, when Hamzah Sheeraz stopped him in the fifth round. That result followed his decision loss to Canelo Alvarez in September 2024. Zuffa signed Berlanga and Hitchins to multi-fight deals in April, and the promotion has framed Berlanga’s arrival as a chance to reset his standing at 168.
The opponent is a genuine test for a homecoming. Steven Butler (38-5-1, 32 KOs), a 30-year-old veteran out of Montreal, enters on a four-fight knockout streak since moving up to super middleweight. The Canadian has shared the ring with elite names over a career that began in 2014, and he arrives in New York carrying the kind of finishing record that makes a return fight dangerous rather than ceremonial.
Hitchins moves up to welterweight
Hitchins (20-0, 8 KOs) is the more consequential name on the roster, and the bout against Salas marks his own Zuffa debut, a 12-round welterweight contest. The undefeated former super lightweight champion will fight at 147 pounds for the first time in his career. The 28-year-old Brooklyn native won his title by split decision over Liam Paro in late 2024 and made a successful defense with an eighth-round stoppage of George Kambosos Jr. at this same Infosys Theater last June, which makes July 26 a return to the room where he last fought.
Salas (24-2-2, 18 KOs), a 27-year-old from Mexico City, earned the assignment on the strength of recent form. He delivered a spectacular knockout of Jesus Saracho in the co-main event of Zuffa Boxing 04 in March, and brings a heavy knockout ratio into the biggest opportunity of his career.
How to watch and tickets
The full card streams live on Paramount+ at no additional cost to subscribers in the United States, Latin America, Brazil, and Canada, with the event broadcast on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 19 at 10 AM ET / 7 AM PT through Ticketmaster, preceded by a UFC Fight Club presale on Wednesday, June 17 and an additional exclusive presale on Thursday, June 18.
Zuffa has not released the rest of the eight-fight card, and additional bouts are expected in the coming weeks. Reporting that preceded the announcement had also tied veteran Sergey Derevyanchenko to the July 26 date, though he was not among Tuesday’s confirmed fights.
The New York card is the clearest signal yet of how fast the TKO-backed promotion intends to move into a market long controlled by Matchroom, Top Rank, and Premier Boxing Champions. Building a debut around two recognizable hometown headliners, rather than prospects, is a deliberate statement of intent. For more on the fighters, see the official records at BoxRec.
