By Jim Maltzman: Adam Smith is predicting heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua vs. Kubrat Pulev will be canceled for their June 20 fight due to the coronavirus at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in Tottenham, London. Smith believes that Joshua and Pulev will fight at the end of the summer.
Smith, who works for Sky Sports, states that he’s been reading a lot of news, and he has serious reservations about the Josua-Pulev fight taking place as planned in June.
Smith’s estimate of the Joshua fight being moved to the end of the summer seems to suggest that he believes that the coronavirus will disappear in the warm temperatures the way that a normal influenza virus behaves.
The evidence suggests otherwise. With the coronavirus, it’s possible that it will endure year-round in the same way the 1918 Spanish Flu thrived during the summer months.
Joshua vs. Pulev likely to be canceled
“I’m not sure it will though, and I’m not sure that date will happen,” said Adam Smith of Sky Sports to Boxing Social when asked if he thinks Joshua will be fighting Pulev on June 20. “I believe it’ll be canceled. I personally am a news junky.
“Everything I’m watching and everything I’m hearing from countries like Spain is my guess is the sport won’t be returning before the summer at the earliest. Whether that includes June 20, I don’t know.
“Maybe that’ll have to be put back for later on this summer. I saw messages from AJ the other day, and all he’s thinking is the safety of his family. It’s very hard. Yes, of course, as boxing fans, we want to see Anthony Joshua fight Kubrat Pulev,” said Smith.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn already has a plan-B option for the Pulev fight with it potentially being moved to July if it can’t take place on June 20. One month isn’t going to improve the chances of the Joshua vs. Pulev fight taking place if the coronavirus continues to infect people.
With the latest dire projections released on Tuesday on the coronavirus, both June and July would seem highly unlikely for the Joshua-Pulev fight to take place.
Boxing behind closed doors possible
“We want to see Tyson Fury fight Deontay Wilder 3, and then we want to see Joshua-Fury 3,” said Smith. “Of course, all of that can happen, but I think all of that is going to get put back. For July, they pulled the date for Fury-Wilder 3, and that’s going to be in October.
“So you’ve got to think that the likelihood is the AJ event will get pulled back. Let’s hope that Tottenham Hotspur, after all the work we did to sure such a great venue, and that’ll be amazing if that still holds up. I don’t think it’ll be a real problem at this moment that these fights won’t happen.
“It’s just that we won’t know when, and to be honest it’s not that important at the moment. We just have to accept that there are much bigger things at stake. That’s peoples’ lives and people’s families. The key is everyone needs to stay at home and the NHS is as safe as possible and keep everyone out that as safe as possible.
“We hope this passes through as quickly as it can. Boxing just isn’t important at the moment. I’ve never seen anything like this before in our lives, not just sports. The sport being off for a number of weeks. No idea when the next live-action is coming.
“Will there be boxing behind closed doors with social distancing? It’s possible. Those are things that will be worked on as weeks go by, but at the moment we have to assume that the boxing calendar is completely on hold,” said Smith.
That would be excellent if the boxing events can be staged behind closed doors for the future. While that obviously isn’t ideal, it might be the only way boxing can come back in 2020.
