Promoters are scrambling to find the best dates and sites to showcase their fighters.
The lightweight title-unification fight between Vasilily Lomachenko, Boxing Junkie’s No. 1 fighter pound-for-pound, and Teofimo Lopez has tentatively been moved from Sept. 19 to Oct. 3 in the hopes that the corornavirus will ease enough to allow some spectators, BoxingScene.com reported.
Bob Arum, who promotes both fighters, hopes to stage the fight in Las Vegas.
Lomachenko-Lopez was originally scheduled for May 30 at Madison Square Garden in New York but was canceled because of the pandemic.
“Loma-Lopez, we had scheduled it for Sept. 19 as the working date but now it will probably go on pay-per-view and that means the working date now is Oct. 3,” Arum said.
“Right now, with the [coronavirus] spike going on Nevada we couldn’t schedule it even with limited spectators. Hopefully, and we have some time, we’re looking to do that fight for 2,000 or maybe 2,500 people.”
Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) last fought in August, when he defeated Luke Campbell by a unanimous decision in London. He reportedly opened his training camp this week in Ukraine.
Lopez (15-0, 12 KOs) is coming off a sensational second-round knockout of Richard Commey to win his 135-pound title.
Meanwhile, BoxingScene.com reported that the sites for Premier Boxing Champions’ first post-lockdown cards are set.
The PBC will stage a card on Aug. 1 in a secured bubble at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut on Showtime, according to the website. An MMA card reportedly will be held at the same site the week before.
Luis Nery (30-0, 24 KOs) could face Aaron Alameda (25-0, 13 KOs) in a junior featherweight bout in the main event Aug. 1, according to BoxingScene.com.
Also, an Aug. 8 card – reportedly featuring Jamal James vs. Thomas Dulorme in a welterweight bout, although that hasn’t be finalized – will take place at Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles, from where Fox apparently will televise several cards.
The first show on Fox was scheduled for July 25 but was moved because of the scheduled start of the Major League Baseball season.