Queensberry Promotions are looking to bring back live action in early July, with the BT Sports Studios in East London among the venues being considered for the behind-closed-doors shows.
Frank Warren’s company has been is looking at staging one show per week from the second week in July, with a British title fight to headline the first show, which would be the first card staged in the UK since the coronavirus lockdown.
Several television and film studios are being looked at to stage the shows, including BT’s own headquarters inside the Olympic Park near Stratford, with details set to be pinned down after talks with the British Boxing board of Control this week.
The studios were originally built as the International Broadcasting Centre for the 2012 London Olympics, before they were converted for long-term use. They have never staged boxing before, but are regularly used for press conferences, including the first confrontation between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder in 2018.
Under BBBC guidelines on restarting behind-closed-doors after the coronavirus pandemic, each show will be limited to five bouts in order to keep the number of people on site to a minimum. All people on site will also have to be tested for COVID-19.
Having last staged a show in February, Queensberry have many boxers under contract keen for a return to action.
“We should be getting the go-ahead when we have confirmed matters with the Board in the next few days,” Warren said.
“The first show will be headlined by a British title fight. We’ll be looking to do a show a week at the start. We can only put five shows on each bill and we have a lot of boxers to get out.”
Plans are likely to be announced within the next ten days. Rival company Matchroom are expected to start their Fight Camp series of shows, at their headquarters in Brentwood, on July 25.
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.
