Frank Warren is looking at a new date for the huge Daniel Dubois vs Joe Joyce heavyweight showdown after confirming that the bout will not go ahead on Saturday October 24.
The meeting of the two unbeaten British heavyweight prospects was a virtual sellout at London’s O2 Arena before even the first planned date in April was scuppered by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And now, with a second wave of cases causing a slowdown in the return of fans to UK arenas, Warren has confirmed that the latest planned date of October 24 will not happen.
He told the BT Sport Boxing Show: “We’ve been told now that we can’t go on the 24th (of October), we’ve been told that by the O2. So we’re looking at another date, we’re gonna make a decision this week as to what we’re actually going to do.
“We can’t keep postponing it when people have bought tickets. They need to know what’s going on, as do the two guys. I feel the fight will go on before the end of the year.”
Warren has of course been staging shows on BT Sport behind closed doors in recent weeks, but has always been clear that for bigger shows the loss of a live gate has huge ramifications from a revenue perspective.
When asked if he thought Dubois vs Joyce could take place without a crowd, he said: “That’s gonna be a big call and a big decision that everybody’s gonna have to make. That means the boxers, ourselves sitting round a table and working everything out. Because obviously without a gate, the revenue is dramatically different.”
Dubois (15-o) and Joyce (11-0) both returned to action with comfortable victories behind closed doors over the summer and the fight is one of the key components of what is setting up to be a stacked heavyweight schedule in the final quarter of 2020.
Other huge planned bouts include Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder 3, Anthony Joshua vs Kubrat Pulev, Oleksandr Usyk vs Dereck Chisora and Alexander Povetkin vs Dillian Whyte 2.
