Bob Arum’s 2 Phases Plan to Return to Boxing
Since the moment COVID-19 began shutting social events down and sending folks home from work, the entire globe has questioned when will it be over? The most unnerving aspect of this inquiry is no one really knows.
Of course there’s been a great deal of plausible guessing and educated speculations, but in the end there are no concrete answers.
Among those eagerly looking forward to getting back to some semblance of normalcy is veteran Top Rank promoter Bob Arum. Similar to the rest of the world’s population of nonessential workers, Arum has found himself holed up at home binge watching Netflix and occupying himself with his surplus of marijuana.
Certainly there are worst situations to find oneself in! Nevertheless, Arum would much rather be flying all over the country setting up and promoting fights. While it’s still very much up in the air, in a recent exclusive interview with Fight Hype, he provided his best estimations as to when boxing will begin hosting live events again.
GOT TO CRAWL BEFORE WALKING
Obviously, there is no one that can declare definitively when the sport will get back on its feet. That is a matter of when it is possible to get the COVID-19 outbreaks and haphazard spiking areas under control.
Yet, by looking at the trends that have presented themselves thus far, Arum gave his best forecast of when the fight-starved fans can expect to see some live action next.
“Well, there is going to be two phases. The first phase is going to be fights without audiences. That hopefully can start in June, July and August.
“Starting in September, I think we’ll be able to plan fights with audiences.
“I think the key thing is to watch what the NBA does. I think they are the leaders, they have been the leaders. They shut it down first and let’s see how they progress in opening up their sport. I think they did a great job and I’ll be very curious to see how they do it.
“But what I am looking towards is in June starting shows with the blessing of the various commissions, whether it’s Nevada or New York, I mean Nevada or California or Florida.
“Gradually a couple of months of fights without spectators and hopefully by September, October we can get back to normal.”
So, while we are all stuck in this less than ideal scenario, the above estimations are about as good as we’re going to get at the moment!
Ideally it will turn out that Arum is right on the mark, otherwise we will be looking at a much gloomier outcome.
By: Bakari Simpson
