The Matchroom Boxing chief, Eddie Hearn, has seen his business severely affected due to the escalating pandemic after the British Boxing Board of Control put a halt to fights amid concern for safety with the number of top-level clashes pushed back continuing to increase.
Hearn may explore the idea of moving them internationally depending on the state of the global health emergency across the globe. Highly-anticipated showdowns involving Anthony Joshua, Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora have been suspended with a showdown due in Saudi Arabia in the first week of July, which is very unlikely now.
”Some sports will start a lot sooner, in some countries, than others and Saudi could be one of the countries that get on top of it sooner. We need to put these fights on somewhere, whether they are British title fights, our prospects, world title fights of pay-per-view fights as we would want them where we scheduled them but I also would not rule out the bigger fights going international.”
And Hearn has also relented on his desire to reschedule shows, agreeing that boxing would place too much unnecessary strain on the NHS during the crisis. He added: “Boxing is dangerous, you need to have access to doctors, you need to be able to take people to hospital for emergency treatment. And, right now, that would be too selfish because the NHS have enough on their plate, without fighters coming in”
“Right now, do people really want to see people punching each other in the face? We don’t think people want to see people getting hurt, at the minute. Hopefully, people will love and appreciate the art of boxing very soon, but right now it just does not seem right”.
