‘Fight Club in a Nightclub’: South Bay venue to host first-of-its-kind fight card

(KRON) — There’s a plethora of nightclubs across the Bay Area with dozens of different events.

Pure in Sunnyvale is one of the most popular nightclubs in all of the Bay Area. Since opening in 2012, hundreds of events have taken place at Pure Night Club, but none will be like what will take place this Saturday.

A boxing ring will be installed in the center of Pure Night Club on May 24 for the first-of-its-kind fight card in the Bay Area, event organizers announced. The fight card is promoted by New Money Fight Club, which is promoting its first event.

New Money Fight Club CEO Steve O’Connell says staging a fight card inside a nightclub is the first in the Bay Area. Typically, amateur and small-scale professional fights are fought inside convention centers, ballrooms and gyms.

“It’s going to be a completely different experience,” O’Connell told KRON4.” The ring is going to be on the dance floor right in front of the DJ… This is going to be great because we want to find unique venues. There are tons of great promotions out here. We’re kind of spoiled in California. There are many options, but they’re doing it at like civic centers and arenas and gyms.”

New Money Fight Club, for its debut event, wanted to be different. For most of the 38 fighters on the card, they are used to competing in those traditional venues.

The fighters’ “dressing rooms” will be upstairs at Pure’s VIP lounge with a big curtain down the middle separating the competitors. That is where the combatants will warm up and conduct their pre-fight rituals.

When it’s their turn to fight, each fighter will walk down a flight of stairs with a spotlight for fans to see as they are accompanied to the ring with music, according to O’Connell.

O’Connell, who has a background running a martial arts media company, drew inspiration from attending fight cards in other big cities like New York and Los Angeles. Nightclubs in those cities had hosted fight cards where the action takes place in a space that is typically the dance floor.

After witnessing those events in person, O’Connell told his team, “Alright, that’s what we need to do.”

However, the idea was not met without some questions from the nightclubs O’Connell initially contacted. He sent out emails to a few club owners — only to be told their respective venues were not set up to have a boxing ring installed. After going to Pure Night Club with a tape measure to see if he could put together a fight card, O’Connell found his venue.

O’Connell got in touch with Pure Night Club owner Michael Hu to make it happen. Like other club owners, Hu wasn’t without his concerns about doing this out-of-the box event.

Hu has never hosted a fight card before — quite different from the usual DJ-headling events.

The fight card begins at 5 p.m. and is expected to continue until 11 p.m. It will feature 19 amateur Muay Thai fights — a martial art similar to kickboxing but incorporates elbows, knees and clinches. The main event will be between Jack Kerr and Sterling Ritch for the ISKA super cruiserweight national title. Kerr trains out of Resistance in Pleasanton, and Ritch hails from Idaho.

Tickets for the event can be purchased here. It is a 21+ event only.

Pure Night Club is located at 146 S Murphy Ave. It is owned and operated by Michael Hu. Hu also owns Hungry Cow in Fremont and the now-closed YOLO Nightclub in San Francisco.

“People are pretty hyped up about it because nobody’s done a show like this before,” O’Connell said.