Boxing apparently will resume next month.
Promoter Bob Arum said during a radio interview that he’s completing plans to stage “two or three events every week” with spectators in early June in one Las Vegas hotel on ESPN’s platforms beginning in early June. Arum’s company, Top Rank, is based there.
And, in the U.K, a government plan to ease the coronavirus lock down seems to open the door for live shows – also behind closed doors – as early as June 1.
Arum said during the interview, on SiriusXM’s “At that Fights,” that all necessary precautions would be taken. That includes extensive testing for the virus.
“We have contacted most of our fighters,” Arum said. “We plan to launch the first week in June in a safe, secure way. We’re going to initially launch in Nevada. We’ve made arrangements or are making arrangements with a hotel. We can get everybody tested, put them in a bubble and get these fights on. And unfortunately, because a lot of it requires so much extra work and care and testing that we’re going to limit our fight shows to four fights a card. But that’s the bad side.
“The good side is we hope, we’re arranging with ESPN to do two or three events every week. So, because you know, you take a big sports network like ESPN, ESPN+, they don’t have live sports now and putting boxing on, particularly top-level boxing, will attract big audiences.”
Arum didn’t indicate who would be showcased on the cards or which hotel would host the events.
Meanwhile, the U.K plan, released as a document Monday, details the conditions under which sporting events and other activities can resume. That includes “permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed-doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact”.
The June 1 date is only a starting point. It could change depending on the level of containment but officials encouraged organizers to begin planning. Plus, the British Boxing Board of Control has set a goal of restarting the sport in July in its own guidelines, released last week.
The government document does not indicate when spectators might be allowed to attend events. Businesses in which people come into close contact with one another – such as movie theaters and hair salons – won’t resume until at least July 4. Allowing fans to return to venues could come after that.
“[It] may only be fully possible significantly later depending on the reduction in numbers of infections,” the document states.
U.K. promoters have discussed ways to resume the sport but no specific post-lock down events have been announced.
UFC held UFC 249 without spectators on Saturday, it’s first event since the lock down was implemented.