Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is preaching patience to his large stable of fighters.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Top Rank was forced to cancel events in several countries, that were scheduled to take place in the months of March, April, May - and even pushed back their planned July rematch between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
Arum's phone has been ringing non-stop, with fighters eager to return to the ring to earn a living.
“They all want to know when they can go again. I say, ‘I’m not Dr. (Anthony) Fauci. Ask him. He knows better than me,’” Arum said to the Las Vegas Sun.
Until the numerous restrictions are lifted, Arum and other boxing promoters will continue to push back their events.
Arum is following the recommendation to stay at home, and only leaves his property to go on short walks.
“I think all the boxing promoters realize we’re in this together and we’ve got to cancel the events and keep them canceled until we get the all-clear from the governmental authorities,” said Arum said.
“As old as I am, I wasn’t around in 1919 for the Spanish flu so I don’t know how that compared with this, but this is really frightening how the pandemic is going all over the globe and how many people are affected by it and how many deaths we’ve had.”
Arum explains that his biggest concern at the moment is not exactly business related.
“I’m more concerned with the fact that hospitals can’t get the proper equipment, that people can’t get the care they should be getting and how unprepared we were in this country for this pandemic, how slow we were to react to it,” Arum said. “I think people should be paying attention to that and not worry about boxing matches not being held.”