Nevada Commission approved boxing’s return on June 9 & 11on ESPN

By Boxing News - 05/27/2020 - Comments

By Kenneth Friedman: The Nevada Commission has reportedly approved boxing to restart for June 9, and June 11 on ESPN for Top Rank’s behind closed doors card. Shakur Stevenson will be facing Felix Caraballo in the headline attraction on Tuesday, June 9, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Each fighter will be tested twice during the week of the fight to make sure that they’re sick from the virus that is causing the pandemic. The cornermen will be tested as well. The fighters will stay on a specially assigned floor in the hotel in the week of the fight, and they’ll train at the Top Rank gym and eat at a restaurant picked out by Top Rank.

There will be five fights on Arum’s June 9 ard on ESPN. It’s great that Top Rank will be having twice-weekly shows at the MGM Grand. Even if they’re not superb match-ups, it’ll be nice to see boxing resuming after a long period of these sport being locked out.

With the two fight dates taking place without live audiences, it’s not quite the same. Although technically boxing will be restarting on Tuesday, June 9, and Thursday, June 11, it’ll be behind closed doors. These are cards put on by Bob Arum of Top Rank.

On June 9, featherweight Shakur Stevenson (13-0, 7 KOs) will be moving up to 130 to take on Felix Caraballo (13-1-2, 9 KOs) at 130 on ESPN at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

”Once we get those fights in and UFC gets its initial fights in, both of us will ask for additional dates,” Arum said to The Associated Press. ”The key was getting enough testing, and we’ve got plenty of testing in Nevada to hold our events.”

This is obviously a mismatch, but it’s better than nothing. The show is only two weeks away, so it’s not surprising that Stevenson is facing an unknown in Caraballo instead of a quality opponent. You’re not going to get quality opponents on short notice during the pandemic.

The undercard for the June 9 event on ESPN is as follows: Mikaela Meyer, Helen Joseph – per @MikeCoppinger, Jared Anderson, Guido Vianello, Robisey Ramirez.

It’s still unknown which fighters will be on the June 11 card on ESPN.

British promoter Eddie Hearn will be holding his own cards in July on the 15th at the Matchroom Boxing HQ in England.

Golden Boy Promotions are expected to hold a card on July 4, headlined by Ryan Garcia, but they’ve not said anything lately on whether they still plan on doing that.

The UFC already started with their own events in staging a card earlier this month behind closed doors in Florida. The fight card was televised on pay-per-view and reportedly did well.

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