Matchroom are likely to follow Top Rank by staging their first fights since the coronavirus pandemic in Las Vegas.

Eddie Hearn’s company are looking at staging their first US fights in mid-August, probably at the end of their UK Fight Camp series, which is due to wrap up on August 15 or 22.

Originally, Hearn had planned to go to Florida, where the UFC had first staged their behind-closed-doors shows. But Las Vegas is now favourite having seen Top Rank stage a series of shows in the MGM Grand Conference Center.

Las Vegas gives several options with the number of under-used hotels and conference centers, with no shortage of officials being locally based too.

The first show could feature former WBC super-lightweight champion Regis Prograis. He had originally been lined up to face former WBO champion Maurice Hooker, until a weight dispute put paid to that. One opponent under consideration is Pablo Cesar Cano, who is on a run of three wins, including victory over Jorge Linares.

Other fights in the running for a place on the early Matchroom USA shows are Devin Haney defending his WBC lightweight title against Luke Campbell and Cecelia Braekhus defending her undisputed world welterweight title against Jessica McCaskill, the WBC and WBA super-lightweight champion.

Julio Cesar Martinez is also being lined up for a defence of his WBC flyweight title.

All the fights are likely to be announced together as part of a DAZN fall fight schedule.

Matchroom’s last show in the US was in February, when Mikey Garcia beat Jessie Vargas in Frisco, Texas.

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.