LAS VEGAS – Bob Arum has had enough after 14 months of wearing masks.

The 89-year-old promoter declared the COVID-19 pandemic “over” during a press conference Thursday for the Jose Ramirez-Josh Taylor fight. Arum urged everyone in attendance at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas to remove their masks and return to normalcy.

“Look, don’t get me started,” Arum said. “But the White House announced today that they are having meetings at the White House, no social distancing, no masks. Take off your goddamn masks out there! Anybody who hasn’t been vaccinated and gets the COVID, it’s on them. The pandemic is over! Over!”

COVID-related capacity restrictions will limit the crowd for the 140-pound title unification fight between Ramirez and Taylor on Saturday night to slightly more than 1,000 inside The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The venue can accommodate roughly 2,200 for boxing, but Arum’s company, Top Rank Inc., was allowed to sell tickets for only 50 percent of The Theater’s capacity for the Ramirez-Taylor card because three feet of social distance is still required in Nevada.

Arum’s home state will open up its venues to 100-percent capacity June 1. Top Rank then will have a full allotment of tickets available for its three shows ESPN will televise or stream from The Theater at Virgin Hotels on June 12, June 19 and June 26.

“As of the end of this fight, May 22nd, the pandemic is over,” said Arum, who has long been open about his allegiance to the Democratic party. “Put away your goddamn masks and let’s live a normal life.”

Ramirez-Taylor will be the first card Top Rank will hold with fans in attendance in Las Vegas since the pandemic began. Arum’s company promoted 26 cards behind closed doors at MGM Grand Conference Center from June 9 until February 20.

The United States’ COVID-related travel ban on visitors from the United Kingdom still prevented any of Taylor’s fans from Scotland and elsewhere in the UK from flying to Las Vegas for the biggest fight of the unbeaten IBF/WBA 140-pound champion’s career.

“Can you believe that in this country there is a ban, a travel ban, on our cousins from Britain and our cousins from the EU?,” Arum said in reference to the European Union. “They can’t come in here, absolute travel ban, and I’ll tell you why that’s important. And a Russki? He’s not under a travel ban. Moscow, they don’t care about COVID, they don’t wear masks. They can come in. A Bulgarian can come in, but a Brit or a Scottish guy can’t come in because of COVID. That is preposterous! President Biden, wake up! Wake up! I mean, this is important. This town relies on tourism. And how do you ban people from the UK, from France, from Germany? I mean, it’s preposterous!”

ESPN and ESPN Deportes will televise Ramirez-Taylor as the main event of a tripleheader Saturday night (8 p.m. EDT; 5 p.m. PDT). Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) is listed by most online sports books as more than a 2-1 favorite over Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs), who owns the WBC and WBO 140-pound crowns.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.