Crowds could return to sports stadiums in the United Kingdom from October.

That was the announcement of the country’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, on Friday.

Sports events have taken place without crowds in attendance since March because of the risk of spreading COVID-19.

But laying out the next steps to lifting lockdown, the man in Number 10 said: “From October we intend to bring back audiences in stadiums.”

For boxing, this is a welcome boost. Frank Warren and Queensberry Promotions pushed back its BT Sport Box Office offering of a five-belt fight to October 24 recently and it now looks like a good decision.

Daniel Dubois, the British, Commonwealth, WBC Silver and WBO International heavyweight king, is set to meet Olympic silver medallist and fellow unbeaten big man Joe Joyce, with the vacant European title also at stake, at the O2 Arena in London.

On the other side of the promotional fence, Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom has its Fight Camp series behind-closed doors, beginning August 1 and culminating on August 22 in the Sky Sports Box Office offering of Dillian Whyte’s WBC interim heavyweight title clash against Alexander Povetkin and Katie Taylor’s highly-anticipated rematch against Delfine Persoon in a defence of her WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO and Ring Magazine world female lightweight titles.

Martin Bakole, Whyte’s fellow heavyweight, will meet Russia’s Sergey Kuzmin on the card, while there is also a rescheduled clash between Luther Klay and Chris Kongo on the bill for the former’s WBO Global welterweight title.

Hearn announced that the fights between Lewis Ritson and Miguel Vasquez and Lee Selby’s IBF lightweight title final eliminator against George Kambosos Jr. would both be ticketed.

The former, set for October 17 at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, will be screened exclusively live on Sky Sports and is set to feature ‘The Benwell Bomber’ Joe Laws on the undercard, while Selby-Kambosos Jr. will headline a card on October 3 at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales.

Chad Sugden and Shakan Pitters meet in a vacant British light-heavyweight title showdown in a state of the art, arena sized and purpose built production studio, behind-closed-doors, with no public in attendance on August 22, promoted by Mick Hennessy, but the fact that Boris Johnson has begun to introduce fans back into arenas can only be a plus for boxing and a plus for the fans who want to see the fights that can only be made courtesy of money brought in on the gate.