Matchroom has canceled their April 17 show headlined by the Regis Prograis vs. Maurice Hooker fight at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. This is a response to the COVID 19 pandemic. The promotional company is looking at alternative options, including switching the date and possibly moving the fight if need be.
Former WBO light-welterweight champion Prograis (24-1, 20 KOs) is coming off of a loss to Josh Taylor last October in the WBSS tourney. He’s looking to rebuild, and win back his lost title. For his part, former WBO 140-lb champion Hooker (27-1-3, 18 KOs) was beaten by a 6th round TKO in a unification fight last July by WBC champion Jose Ramirez in Arlington, Texas.
Prograis and Hooker are trying to get back into the thick of things after disappointing losses last year.
Hopefully, this doesn’t a snowball effect where Matchroom’s UK cards wind up being postponed and/or canceled one after another. Matchroom has a March 28 card coming up this month headlined by David Avanesyan vs. Josh Kelly. Some boxing fans are predicting an announcement next week by Matchroom about the cancelation or postponement of the March 28 card.
One option that Matchroom might need to consider if they want to have their cards take place without interruption is to have them staged behind closed doors. It may not be ideal but it could be the way forward to have the cards take place without the risk cancelation or postponement.
If the gate money is essential for the cards to take place, then that could put a lot of the Matchroom fighters on the shelf for what could be a prolonged period of time.
It’s already March 16th, the numbers of new coronavirus cases haven’t leveled off. It’s continuing to spike despite the measures from the government in alerting the population about social distancing and hand sanitizing.
Matchroom also has the following cards that could be at risk:
- May 2: Dillian Whyte vs. Alexander Povetkin
- May 23: Oleksandr Usyk vs. Dereck Chisora
- June 20: Anthony Joshua vs. Kubrat Pulev
Eddie Hearn of Matchroom is counting on the UK government allowing events involving large crowds to take place, but it’s not up to him, he admits.
Matchroom hasn’t said whether the undercard will be moved along with the Prograis-Hooker main event. There are a number of excellent fighters on the card such as Cecilia Brækhus vs. Jessica McCaskill, Filip Hrgović vs. Jerry Forrest and Daniyar Yeleussinov vs. Julius Indongo.
