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Nick Parkinson
The World Boxing Council (WBC) is advising promoters and national or state commissions to put boxers and their teams into 14 days of isolation before staging events behind closed doors.
Promoters are devising plans for boxing to return after the sport was shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, as states and nations prepare to ease restrictions around the staging of live sports events without fans.
The WBC is recommending boxers and their teams should be based at an isolated venue for 14 days leading up to the fight, and has set out guidelines for remote judging.
Under the WBC’s plans, judges will score fights by watching the fight live via TV from home, logging into a WBC portal and then scoring the fight after every round. The state or national boxing commission and supervisor will then finalize the scores at the venue.
The WBC is emailing promoters and boxing commissions around the world with its protocol for boxing cards behind closed doors, although the governing body has no authority to enforce the protocols it sets out.
The WBC also advises measures to include a questionnaire around the coronavirus for those involved in the event, an examination of medical records, daily monitoring and three coronavirus tests, with the final one at the weigh-in.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaimán told a news conference on Zoom: “This is a recommendation document for promoters. The idea would be a lockdown place [venue], not open to the public. The press conference and weigh in would have no public. The fighters and their teams would need to go through a 14-day isolation with a daily monitoring of their temperatures.
“This is a proposed protocol for the boxing industry to use. We understand each country have different laws and states in the U.S. have different state laws. This is a general recommendation and it’s not to do with WBC world boxing events, it’s for boxing in general.”
Sulaimán also said the WBC will not be putting pressure on its champions — including heavyweight Tyson Fury, light-heavyweight Artur Beterbiev, middleweight Jermall Charlo, super lightweight Jose Carlos Ramirez, lightweight Devin Haney, junior lightweight Miguel Berchelt and junior bantamweight Fransisco Estrada — to fulfil mandatory defenses by certain deadlines due to the coronavirus crisis.
Sulaimán added: “We’re going to work with every promoter and champion and mandatory challenger and address every topic.”
British promoter Frank Warren told ESPN he hopes to be staging events without fans by July, but it may be months before crowds are allowed to attend boxing events.