Josh Warrington vs. Xu Can Could Still Happen in December

Josh Warrington’s featherweight unification fight with Xu Can could still go ahead in December, with Eddie Hearn confident that there will be three belts on the line for the match.

December 5 is presently the target date for a Warrington-Xu fight, although that will likely change if Tyson Fury’s fight that day is confirmed.

Warrington, the IBF champion, had been due to face Xu, the WBA’s regular champion, in Leeds in June before the coronavirus lockdown.

It is expected that Xu, from China, will be upgraded to the WBA’s “super champion” once Leo Santa Cruz steps in the ring with Gervonta Davis on October 31, while Hearn also believes that The Ring magazine belt will also be at stake. It is hoped that a crowd of some sorts will be able to attend.

“We are talking to Golden Boy [Xu’s promoters} about the Can Xu fight, which was the fight we had already agreed pre-pandemic,” Hearn said. “That’s the one we want to make and we think we can get the Ring magazine belt for it as well. 

“It is difficult to get that fight made without fans but we are going to have to find a way to do it.”

Hearn will be promoting four shows at the SSE Arena, Wembley, starting with the October 31 Oleksandr Usyk-Dereck Chisora fight. While Matchroom is preparing for those shows to be behind-closed-doors, using such a large venue (it has a 12,500 capacity) opens up the possibility for a socially-distanced crowd.

“I’m fine with us behind behind-closed-doors at the moment, but we have an obligation to push for crowds coming back,” Hearn said. “The only way we are going to get crowds back is to start small and grow. But at the same time there is a lot less risk with doing it without fans at the moment. Part of me feels, ‘let’s just get these fights done right now and deliver for the fighters’.”

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 – covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.