MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/. President of the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Francisco Valcarcel doubts that any major professional boxing bouts will be organized this year in view of the ongoing global spread of the novel coronavirus, US-based ESPN sports broadcaster cited the WBO chief as saying.
The WBO has put on hold all of its activities until mid-June over the COVID-19 pandemic and, according to ESPN, the suspension is likely to be extended under the current developments.
"At the moment, we continue to work from home until at least mid-June," Valcarel said in an interview with ESPN. "The rankings on our website will remain as is until then."
According to the WBO president there would be no sense in organizing major boxing fights without fans in attendance.
"I think the fans are an essential part of boxing," Valcarcel continued. "Even if boxing is a TV event, the fights that are of most interest to the public ... I don't think we'll be able to see them this year, at least not until we can have fans. For us to have fans, we need a vaccine. It's a complicated thing."
"They say they might be able to fight in August or September, but I have my doubts," the WBO chief stated. "The fans are key. We must sacrifice money or time waiting on a vaccine. Promoters are going to have to give up money if they want to do it before that."
The US sports broadcaster also quoted WBO attorney Gustavo Olivieri as saying: "We don't have a set schedule for when boxing starts again."
The United States is currently the leading country in terms of confirmed novel coronavirus cases, which exceed the figure of 614,200. The COVID-19 death toll in the country is over 26,000. Over 38,800 patients have been reported to recover from the virus.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,000,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 127,600 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 491,900 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, a total of 24,490 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,986 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 198 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.