Tuesday Top Rank Heavyweight battle off to Covid 19

An interesting heavyweight battle that was slated for Tuesday night in the Top Rank Boxing Vegas “bubble” is now off, due to the all-too-familiar theme of one of the fighters having tested positive for Covid-19.

Unbeaten Italian heavyweight Guido Vanello posted on social media Monday morning Vegas time that his bout will not be happening:

My fight has been canceled due to the positive test of my opponent. It’s a tough situation but I feel very confident for the future. I trained hard and made a lot of improvements. Now it’s time to come back to Italy, recharge the batteries and wait for the next fight date. #gv pic.twitter.com/kuM7whgWLs

— Guido Vianello (@vianello_guido) July 20, 2020

Vianello, who has scored seven Knockouts in his first seven pro fights, since beginning his career in December of 2018, was to have been back at the MGM Grand Convention Center for the second time in 6 weeks. This after on June 9th he dispatched Don Haynesworth in the first round bringing his KO streak to seven.

Vianello’s opponent, Kingsley Ibeh, 5-1, found out about his positive test Monday.

The Nigerian born Ibeh, who now lives and trains in Phoenix, had scored a decision win over Patrick Mailata on July 2nd and was going to be back in the ring just 19 days later.

A non title Featherweight battle between Oscar Valdez, 27-0, 21KOs and Puerto Rico’s Jayson Velez is the scheduled main event Tuesday night on ESPN.

It’s interesting that Vianello posted that he will not wait for another possible opponent in the short-term, but instead, he intends to go back to Italy.

As we wrote previously, Vianello has been working in Las Vegas in recent weeks with outstanding U.S. amateur Jeremiah Milton. Milton is expected to make his professional debut for Top Rank next month.

Milton said about that training earlier this month in a Boxingscene.com interview,

“I love sparring the best heavyweights in boxing, “There is no other city like Las Vegas where you can get the best sparring that boxing has to offer. Guido Vianello is an exceptionally talented fighter and I’m learning a lot by sharing the ring with him.”

Vianello, who represented Italy in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, seemed to be maybe on 2-3 fights away from being a potential headliner for Top Rank Boxing later this year or in early 2021. And, that could still be the case if he get’s back in the ring soon.