WBO freezes all activity until June 15

We already know basically every boxing organization has suspended their activities in some form during this coronavirus pandemic, but WBO president Francisco Valcarcel tells ESPN that his organization will halt all of its operations — including sanctioned fights, updating rankings, and all other administrative tasks — until at least June 15.

The WBO last released its ratings update on March 18 but won’t be doing so again for a couple months, which really isn’t the biggest deal with nothing going on in the meanwhile. And Valcarcel says that although some are holding out hope for big boxing to resume by the end of the summer, he doesn’t necessarily expect that to be the case.

“I think the fans are an essential part of boxing,” Valcarcel said. “Even if boxing is a TV event, the fights that are of most interest to the public ... I don’t think we’ll be able to see them this year, at least not until we can have fans. For us to have fans, we need a vaccine. It’s a complicated thing.

“They say they might be able to fight in August or September, but I have my doubts. The fans are key. We must sacrifice money or time waiting on a vaccine. Promoters are going to have to give up money if they want to do it before that.”

Several weeks into this quarantine and there’s still no clear indication on when it all will end, but it’s clear it’s going to be a reasonably lengthy amount of time before we get back into the full swing of things.