The president of the World Boxing Council (WBC), Mauricio Sulaimán, is very confident that boxing will return in the coming weeks, with measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Zanfer Promotions is preparing to stage events in Mexico, starting in June. Top Rank is looking to do a regular series of show in Las Vegas, also starting in June. Eddie Hearn, Golden Boy Promotions and Premier Boxing Champions are looking at the month of July to resume their activities.
"The expectation is that in June you can have fights in Mexico under a strict protocol. There are already states interested in setting up functions and other countries are interested as well in having boxing. It is a matter of days to have a more advanced schedule," said Sulaiman to EFE.
The WBC has been working for weeks on a regulation for staging of closed-door events, with a security device that includes the isolation of the protagonists for two weeks and absolute control to ensure that those involved are healthy.
Sulaimán explained that the boxers wanting to return to activity, have to be willing to adapt to the provisional rules until the risk of contamination from the coronavirus disappears.
"Everyone wants to fight, they want to get into the ring with or without an audience and they are willing to do what has to be done," Sulaiman said.
Referring to the consequences of the pandemic, Sulaiman commented that the new reality has led humanity to make sacrifices - and he believes that even a superstar like Saúl 'Canelo' Álvarez will be willing to fight behind closed doors.
"I am positive that with the professionalism of Canelo, he would be willing to fight without an audience," Sulaiman observed.
Financially, it would difficult to have Canelo compete without an audience - unless there is a venue that offers up a tremendous site fee to make up for the loss of gate revenue. Canelo's last fight, in November against Sergey Kovalev, generated a gate of over $8.1 million.
Sulaiman recognized that no boxer has been training at a maximum level, and it may be necessary to have some kind of flexibility at the weigh-ins, because the sport has had several weeks of inactivity and most gyms have been closed.