SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ looks set to fight behind closed doors on July 4 in Las Vegas following the success of UFC 249.
The Mexican, 29, was due to face Billy Joe Saunders in a unification title fight on May 5 before coronavirus left the sporting world at a standstill.
Canelo has won 53 professional fights including 36 knockoutsCredit: Getty Images – Getty
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Canelo has not fought since his knockout victory over Sergey Kovalev in November 2019.
But he could be back in the ring soon as his promotional team have been inspired by Dana White.
The UFC chief put on a successful show in Florida this weekend – which took place behind closed doors.
Golden Boy president Eric Gomez admitted his team are now ready to “jump into action”.
He told Boxing Scene: “We are going to discuss it and start having talks about it with DAZN, with Canelo, with everybody involved.
“If it’s something Canelo would approve and he’s up for it, and we can make it work for everyone involved, we’re going to do it.
“What matters is if Canelo is in agreement with it and is willing to do, and then we’ll go from there.
“We’ll be ready to jump into action as soon as the restrictions are lifted, as soon as there is some sort of path to do shows again.”
Gomez insisted that he will assess several locations including Texas and Nevada if California is not an option.
“We want to do [July 4] in California. That’s where we are, that’s where Ryan is from.
“But if they’re not ready yet we’ll look into Nevada, we’ll look into Texas, we’ll look everywhere.
“But most important is the safety of the fighters, the safety of the staff, that’s the most important thing.
“We would have to find an arena that everybody’s comfortable with and where we have safety guidelines and they know it’s going to be a sterile place.
“It’s going to have to be an area possibly next to a hotel, where the hotel is going to be sage as well. There’s a lot to it.”
The Golden Boy president added: “We envision shows without fans and, at some point, with fans, but what the specifications are for a return to shows with fans I don’t know.
“We don’t know if that will be this year or not, but we’ll have to follow whatever the guidelines are from federal government, state government.
Tony Ferguson’s defeat by Justin Gaethje was the main event at UFC 249Credit: Getty Images – Getty
“They might say no shows with fans until there’s a vaccine. I don’t know.”
“Testing requirements, for quarantine time, for arenas.
“It would be great if they were unified because then all of the promoters would know the guidelines, would memorise them and then we can conduct business in the proper manner, safe and sound.”
UFC is back up and running after a successful show in Florida – and Golden Boy have taken inspiration from them.
Gomez: “Everybody is keeping a close eye on the UFC.
“We’ll get a full report on what happened with UFC, what was required, how they did it.
Canelo was set to face Billy Joe Saunders this monthCredit: Getty Images – Getty
“We’re in a hurry to get back to business and get back to doing fights again but we’re not in that much of a hurry if it’s not safe and sound. We have to take it seriously.”
“There’s no textbook, no rulebook you can go look at and say this is the way this should be done.
“Some of it will be trial and error and we’re all going to have to adapt.”
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Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
