WBO pulls sanctioning of any fights before July

Another development, this time from a boxing sanctioning body, has to have fight fans concerned about when we will see live action resume? This after the WBO announced overnight Tuesday morning that they are now refusing to sanction any fights before July.

Through a brief statement, the WBO and President Francisco Valcarcel said of their decision,

“Amidst the current situation worldwide caused by Covid-19 the WBO has postponed all boxing events through June 2020, We will update accordingly.” 

That means more planned fights, like the March WBO Featherweight bout with champ Shakur Stevenson’s that was already postponed, and more title fights involving April- June are going by the waste-side.

These include: the April 25 Unified Bantamweight World Title bout between WBO champ John Riel Casimero and WBA/IBF title holder Naoya “The Monster” Inoue is on hold.

The unbeaten Japanese star Inoue was to have made his U.S. debut.

Also, the May 9th Unified Jr. Welterweight title fight between WBO/WBC champ, Jose Ramirez and WBC mandatory contender Viktor Postol is now off, as well, due to the coronavirus cancelations. That fight had already been postponed once before from China in early February due to COVID-19 and moved to the U.S.

The WBO announcement further called into question what we wrote about earlier this week: That’s that the Canelo Alvarez’s challenge for the WBO’s 168 lb. belt against champ, Billy Joe Saunders is not only indefinitely delayed, but we say should be scrapped altogether. Their fight was never officially announced for May 2nd in Las Vegas, and is at least delayed 30 days or so.

We say Alvarez should move on to concentrate on an early September date with IBF Middleweight Champion, Gennady Golovkin, for a third fight in a series between the two.

Alvarez and Triple G have tentatively agreed to fight second weekend in September, which would be their third battle in the last 3 years.

It’s also calls into question whether or not the Anthony Joshua’s next title fight with Kubrat Pulev for the Unified Heavyweight title, still scheduled for late June in England, will actually be sanctioned by the WBO?

The Organization, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has designated Oleksandr Usyk (above), as its number one contender and ordered Joshua to fight the former Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion. However, while waiting for Joshua-Pulev, Usyk is scheduled to take on (and risk his WBO top ranking against) British heavyweight Contender Dereck Chisora on May 23rd.

For now, that fight is still going to happen in London.