With the experiment of in-studio shows being run by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in Florida came an opportunity for boxing to return sooner than expected in some capacity.
It’s still not tempting enough for the team at All Star Boxing, Inc. to be the first ones out the gate while still amidst a global health crisis.
The hard decision has been made by the South Florida-based promotional company to postpone its next block of dates that were to run on Telemundo. The long-running Boxeo Telemundo series was armed with 16 shows this year—four more than normal—but will have to find a new home for the next four events which were due to run every Friday in May.
Cards planned for May 1, May 8, May 15 and May 22 were to have taken place in Mexico City, Kissimmee, Florida and Niagara Falls, New York. The May 8 show in Kissimmee would have been able to take place behind closed doors (without fans in attendance), but will instead be postponed to a later date in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
“What is happening now is unprecedented,” Felix ‘Tutico’ Zabala, Jr., head of All-Star Boxing Inc. told BoxingScene.com of the decision to not proceed with the series even with state approval.
Zabala holds the distinction of having aired the last U.S.-televised show with fans in attendance, as his March 13 card aired live on Telemundo from an intimate venue in Mexico City.
There remained a glimmer of to keep alive his upcoming block, which would have begun May 1 in Mexico City. The May 8 date in Florida would have been permitted in accordance with a recent order approved by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis who justified the practice of WWE events being filmed at its Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida by deeming the entity as an “essential business.”
With that came the hope of boxing and mixed martial arts following suit. That day could still come, but All-Star Boxing will not be the first ones to test the waters. The ongoing global health crisis hits way too close to home for Zabala to put business first.
“My elder father is vulnerable to this virus by even asymptomatic folks,” noted Zabala, whose father Felix Sr. founded the company and was responsible for the launch of Boxeo Telemundo in 1989. “I'm in the boxing business because of my father, I do not want to put anyone else in harm's way.”
The summer season of Boxeo Telemundo is due to begin August 14 in Miami, although everything remains fluid at this point.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox