The powers that be continue to gear up for the return of live boxing – without spectators – amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Stephen Espinoza of Showtime said he expects live boxing to return to the premium network in July, although no date has been set as safety precautions are finalized. Golden Boy Promotions has set July 4 – with young lightweight star Ryan Garcia as the featured fighter – as its tentative restart date.
And Bob Arum of Top Rank, who had already said he would begin staging four-fight shows early next month on ESPN’s platforms, said UFC 249 on Saturday was a decent first step back but his shows “will be a lot better” in terms of how precautions are handled.
Showtime’s last show was on March 13.
“We’re targeting sometime in July to return,” Espinoza told BoxingScene.com. “And, obviously, we’re spending a tremendous amount of time right now trying to make the environment as safe as possible. Keep in mind, that involves working with PBC as they set up protocols for the fighters and promoters. And it’s also working with our parent company (ViacomCBS) as we set up protocols for our employees and contractors. I think there’s a perception that young, healthy people are not affected. Number one, that’s not true for this particular virus.
“But more importantly, the vast majority of individuals probably have someone very close to them who is high risk. Whether it’s a grandparent they take care of, or a spouse or child who might have immune conditions. For someone in my position and the other senior people at Showtime, there’s a heavy responsibility toward asking employees and freelancers to come to an event and wanting to make sure they’re as safe as possible when they return to their families.”
Espinoza said a July restart will allow fighters more time to prepare.
“Practically speaking, we want the fighters to have a full camp,” Espinoza said. “For example, California is just starting to re-open. Texas is just starting to re-open within the last week, along with a lot of other states. That means that a lot of the fighters in California, Texas and elsewhere haven’t had regular access to a gym or to sparring. So, could we rush back in June? Sure. But that wouldn’t give the fighters the best opportunities to succeed.
“We want the fighters to have full camps. And for us, as we re-open now in mid-May, that means coming back in July. We’re not gonna come back just for the sake of coming back. There’s not particular value in saying, ‘We’re the first,’ or, ‘We’re the second.’ The value is coming back with fights that matter, with fighters who have had a fair opportunity to prepare. That’s the key. Nobody wants to see fights with unprepared fighters in meaningless tune-up fights. So, coming back in July is our target.”
Golden Boy President Eric Gomez said safety is his company’s first priority.
“We envision shows without fans and, at some point, with fans, but what the specifications are for a return to shows with fans I don’t know,” Gomez told BoxingScene.com. “We don’t know if that will be this year or not, but we’ll have to follow whatever the guidelines are from federal government, state government. They might say no shows with fans until there’s a vaccine. I don’t know.”
He went on: “We’ll be ready to jump into action as soon as the restrictions are lifted, as soon as there is some sort of path to do shows again. We want to do [July 4] in California. That’s where we are, that’s where Ryan is from. But if they’re not ready yet, we’ll look into Nevada, we’ll look into Texas, we’ll look everywhere. But most important is the safety of the fighters, the safety of the staff, that’s the most important thing. We would have to find an arena that everybody’s comfortable with and where we have safety guidelines, and they know it’s going to be a sterile place. It’s going to have to be an arena possibly next to a hotel, where the hotel is going to be safe as well. There’s a lot to it.”
One additional bit of news from Gomez: It’s possible that Canelo Alvarez will fight without spectators.
“We’re going to discuss it and start having talks about it with DAZN, with Canelo, with everybody involved,” Gomez said. “If it’s something Canelo would approve and he’s up for it, and we can make it work for everyone involved, we’re going to do it. What matters is if Canelo is in agreement with it and is willing to do it, and then we’ll go from there.”
Arum had suggested that UFC’s Dana White jumped the gun by staging his first show this month but, after the fact, he wasn’t as critical. However, he did mention the fact that one participant — Jacare Souza — and two of his cornermen tested positive for COVID-19 the day before the event.
UFC 249 took place behind closed doors at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
“As a first step, it wasn’t bad,” Arum said. “They were the first ones to come back [with a major sporting event in the United States], and with that will come certain mistakes. It wouldn’t be fair to criticize with it being the first one out the box, nor am I here to criticize them. As they do more shows, especially once they come back to Las Vegas, they will adhere to their policies and it will be a lot better. It will look more like ours.
He went on: “We knew all along what UFC’s plans were for these shows. Ours is better, and there’s was never going to determine how we handle our shows. There’s will be as good as ours once they start doing shows in Las Vegas. The Nevada officials have come up with a very good plan, and we’ve been working with a coronavirus task force in state along with [Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director] Bob Bennett and the MGM hotels, which will make a facility available for us.
“What happened on Saturday [with Souza] will never happen at our shows. It will be detected before they even get in the facility. That has to be done and will be done. We’re talking about four fights to start out — the fewer fights you have, the better you can control things.”