Punching through pandemic
Top Rank finds practical way to host fight cards
Top Rank chairman Bob Arum paused before assessing the production of his promotion’s cards inside MGM Grand’s Grand Ballroom amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s not easy,” Arum said. “To schedule these fights in the face in this pandemic, it really tears you to pieces. It’s very, very difficult.
“It’s nobody’s fault. We’re not blaming anybody. I’m blaming the pandemic.”
Yet, the promotion pressed through it.
Top Rank concludes the first iteration of its summer series Tuesday, and will take a brief recess before resuming operations in mid-august. Top junior lightweight contender and former WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez (27-0, 21 knockouts) is fighting former world title challenger Jayson Velez (29-6-1, 21 KOS) in July’s final main event.
Former WBO super bantamweight champion Isaac Dogboe (20-2, 14 KOS) is fighting Chris Avalos (27-7, 20 KOS) in the co-feature.
The locally based firm was the first boxing promotion to resume operations amid the pandemic, and held biweekly cards beginning June 9. Top Rank COO Brad Jacobs said Monday that he was pleased with how the events were produced. He said most were completed without a hitch.
“It became routine as much as this can be routine, and routine includes guys testing positive,” said Jacobs, who devised the promotion’s safety plan in conjunction with the Nevada Athletic Commission. “We knew exactly what to do when the time came, and we did it.”
Jacobs did highlight one key change when the promotion resumes operations next month: Fighters who test positive from the virus won’t be invited back for at least six weeks.
But that aside, protocols will remain the same.
Stringent testing and quarantining successfully weeded out infected fighters and safely transported them away from the bubble. Broadcast and training equipment will remain in place.
Arum said Top Rank will “probably” start booking seven or eight fights per card in August with the expectation that one or two will be canceled because of a positive test. Excess fights, he said, could be taped before the live telecast starts and shown intermittently throughout the broadcast.
“One of the things that we learned is that you have to figure attrition. You have to figure you’re not going to get — in any case — the number of fights you’re going to book,” Arum said. “That’s trial and error. We learned.”
Arum also said it’s likely that a lightweight unification title fight between unified lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOS) and IBF champion Teofimo Lopez (15-0, 10 KOS) will take place in the bubble without an audience. Super featherweight phenom Shakur Stevenson (14-0, eight KOS) could fight again, and WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring (21-2, 10 KOS) likely will defend his title after two positive tests this summer.
That ilk of fight could yield better television ratings than those produced by the cards this summer. The first 10 local cards averaged 328,000 viewers on ESPN.
But Arum isn’t concerned. “This is the summer and in the summer, people are outside and they’re not watching television,” Arum said. “In the summer, there aren’t that many sets in use. These ratings, while they’re not great, they’re not bad.”
Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@ reviewjournal.com. Follow @Bysamgordon on Twitter.