The British Board of Boxing has suspended all planned matches in the month of January due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the first wave of the pandemic, several matches were held behind closed doors or with stringent measures in place which restricted spectator numbers.
Now, all events have had to be postponed, pending further review.
In a statement, The British Board of Boxing said, “Following the increase in Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom and the effects such increases has on the NHS and the work of the board medical officers, it has been decided that no tournaments under the jurisdiction of the British Boxing Board of Control will take place in January 2021.”
“A further review by the board’s medical panel and stewards will take place later in January in relation to tournaments from February onwards.”
Due to the decision, fights featuring Lee McGregor, Karim Gierfi, Josh Kelly and David Avanesyan will need to be rescheduled.
This move follows an earlier statement from Prime Minister Boris Johnson on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show today in which he said, “It may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country. I’m fully, fully reconciled to that and I bet the people of this country are reconciled to that because, until the vaccine really comes on stream in a massive way, we’re fighting this virus with the same set of tools.”
The Prime Minister also insisted that it is safe for children to return back to school on Monday following criticism from scientists, teaching unions and other MPs.
This comes as the majority of the UK remain in stringent Tier 4 lockdown measures.
Boris said, “(there is) no doubt in my mind that schools are safe” and added that the risk of Covid to children was “very, very low” but the benefit of education “so huge”.