Promoter Frank Warren is waiting for clarification from the British Boxing Board of Control, with respect to the restrictions for the return of boxing in the UK - which is being tabbed for the month of July.

Warren has a big heavyweight fight set down for July 11th at the O2 Arena in London. Undefeated heavyweight rivals Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce are scheduled to collide in a very high stakes fight.

The contest was close to being sold out, for the initial date of April 11, when the coronavirus pandemic forced Warren to postpone the show.

When boxing returns in the UK, it will initially have restrictions where fans will not be allowed to attend.

While Warren will consider the scenario of staging events behind closed doors - he would rather not have that setting for the clash between Dubois and Joyce.

"We’re waiting for some kind of clarification from the British government. It looks like we’ll have to put some fights on behind closed doors, but Dubois-Joyce is not one I’d consider doing with no crowd. That fight needs a live audience. It needs the gate it generates and I think we had less than a thousand tickets left before we moved the date. Nobody wants to put fights on behind closed doors. But if we don’t do it then the sport won’t be relevant. Then we’ll get into a situation where we won’t be on TV," Warren told Metro.

"Sky and BT need live sport to keep their subscribers. Football is their main cash cow, but when it comes to them cutting costs, we don’t want to be at risk. If we don’t put on fights our sport will suffer. We have to ensure boxing isn’t a casualty of all this. It’s impossible to make money from behind closed door fights.  You lose income right away without an audience and then you incur extra costs to ensure it’s safe for the fighters. But we have to do it to ensure the sport has a future.

"I can’t say you’re going to see my big-name fighters competing behind closed doors. But that depends on how long this goes on for. The likes of Carl Frampton and Dubois can’t be out of action for the rest of the year. Anyone who is opening up with a pay-per-view, that is not on. If this goes on for four or five months, then maybe we’d revisit that. People do want to be entertained in bad times, so the market is there. But, putting on PPV fights right now is not something I will be involved in."