All US-based boxer bout expected to take place in Las Vegas hotel ballroom
Boxing will return in the United States on June 9 following a lifting on the lockdown restrictions with promoter Bob Arum poised to confirm a Top Rank show early next week, sources have told Telegraph Sport.
It will be the first card in eight weeks after the country was placed in lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The event, likely to feature US-based boxers, will take place in a Las Vegas hotel ballroom, expected to be at the MGM Grand or a neighbouring MGM property, and will have “five or six fights” along with a skeleton staff of state officials, medics, boxers, their teams and television crew.
It is understood that the event will be headlined by Shakur Stevenson, defending his WBO featherweight title, against Rafael Rivera behind closed doors and on a shortened fight card.
It is not known if Hall of Fame promoter Arum, 88, will attend. Arum told Telegraph Sport earlier this week that his team had been “planning tentatively for June 9 boxing event in Nevada, though it was not official.”
Arum, at the time, was still awaiting clearance from the boxing company’s broadcast partners ESPN, which has returned to action showing mixed martial arts live with the Ultimate Fighting Championships [UFC] taking place from a venue in Florida, with three events having taken place over the past eight days. Three people – one fighter, and two cornermen – have tested positive for coronavirus at the UFC event, and have been quarantined.
“It will be behind closed doors, with a major testing process and is will not money making exercise,” Arum said. “It is just a way to get boxing back and moving again, and on television.”
Arum revealed at the time that there were still talks ongoing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, who will have ratified the event going ahead.