Another boxing event has been knocked out by the coronavirus outbreak.
Promoters Matchroom Boxing and OPI Since 82 announced on Monday that their DAZN show scheduled for March 27 at the AGSM Forum in Verona, Italy, has been postponed “due to the recent ban by the Italian government of all sports events until April 3.”
The promoters, who previously postponed a card they had scheduled for Feb. 28 in Milan, Italy, said are working to reschedule both events.
“Given the unprecedented nature of this now global issue, we are unable to offer more clarity on new dates,” they said in a statement.
The March 27 card was due to be headlined by European lightweight champion Francesco Patera, of Belgium, squaring off with Devis Boschiero, of Italy, for a vacant interim lightweight belt. In the co-feature, Italy’s Luca Rigoldi was due to make his third defense of the European junior featherweight title against England’s Gamal Yafai, the younger brother of former junior bantamweight world titlist Kal Yafai.
The postponement is just the most recent in boxing caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The Japan Boxing Commission and the Japan Professional Boxing Association previously announced that all boxing events in Japan are canceled or postponed until at least April 15, including a vacant flyweight world title bout between Japan’s Junto Nakatani and the Philippines’ Giemel Magramo, which was scheduled for April 4 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
Top Rank was scheduled to put on an ESPN-televised card headlined by unified junior welterweight world titlist Jose Ramirez’s mandatory defense against former titleholder Viktor Postol on Feb. 1 at Mission Hills Haikou resort in Haikou, China but it was postponed on Jan. 23 because of the corona virus outbreak and rescheduled for May 9 at Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, the home region for Avenal, California, native Ramirez.