Arum on Lomachenko-Lopez: Maybe at Allegiant Stadium With 10,000 Fans

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes lightweight champions Vasiliy Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez, could potentially match his boxers on a date in September at Las Vegas' new Allegiant Stadium - home to the NFL's Raiders.

Arum aims to bring the fight to the massive facility with a small crowd. The venue can hold 65,000 fans.

For monetary reasons, the fight will be difficult to stage without an audience.

Arum is hoping that the current restrictions on live audiences, due to the coronavirus pandemic, are eased up enough to run a big event with a limited number of live fans.

"A big fight, we're hoping to do it in September with a limited audience," Arum told Sky Sports.

"We're talking to the new American football team, the Las Vegas Raiders, who have a beautiful new $1.8 billion stadium. They're talking to us about doing this fight in their stadium in September for maybe 10,000 people spread out. Everybody is working to get these things done. We can't talk definitely until we have satisfied all the regulatory bodies.

"The Nevada commission is way ahead of everybody in terms of moving forwards."

Arum's company is getting back to live events on Tuesday, when they stage their first closed doors card at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Conference Center Grand Ballroom, with Shakur Stevenson fighting Felix Caraballo in the ESPN televised headliner. They will stage a second event on Thursday, also in Las Vegas.

Both Lopez and Lomachenko have been out of the ring since last year. The undefeated Lopez holds the IBF's version of the world title, while the once-beaten Lomachenko has the WBC Diamond, WBA, WBO world titles.