Artur Beterbiev’s matchup against Fanlong Meng on March 28 in Quebec City was canceled because of the coronavirus global pandemic.

Considering the close proximity on the calendar in which the fight was stalled, Beterbiev could not escape the camp-related expenses that came with preparing for the fight over the last two months. The stalling of the Meng matchup ended up costing Beterbiev a pretty penny—money that as an independent contractor, he won't be recovering.

Beterbiev head trainer Marc Ramsay estimates that his unified IBF and WBC light heavyweight champion is out anywhere from roughly $35,000 to $52,000 US dollars ($50,000 to $75,000 in Canadian dollars) in training expenses, per The Journal of Montreal.

“It’s a true catastrophe,” said Ramsay. “In addition to not receiving his purse, Artur is going to absorb all the costs for his training camp. It’s a camp that had big expenses in terms of the salary for the six-man team, their allowances, flight tickets and housing.

Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs) earned $1.5 million in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk when he scored a 10th round TKO win for the Ukranian’s WBC title.

“Even for my gymnasium, it will not be easy in the coming weeks. We make our budget on a monthly basis. However, for the time being, safety and health takes precedence,” said Ramsey. “Over the next few days, I'm going to be busy closing my last two training camps like finding plane tickets for Artur sparring partners who have to return home. Then, I will advance in my boxing projects which are mainly administrative.

“We could maybe do our training camp outside, but even that isn’t optimal … In my opinion, we’re far from doing that. We’ll make plans as soon as we get some precise dates.”

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist and member of the Boxing Writers Assn. of America since 2011. He has written for the likes of the LA Times, Guardian, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Men’s Health and NFL.com and currently does TV commentary for combat sports programming that airs on Fox Sports and hosts his own radio show in Los Angeles. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan or via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com.