The card on Saturday headlined by Joshua Buatsi vs. Daniel Dos Santos, airing live on DAZN worldwide except the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and China, will be held in Manchester behind closed doors. And promoter Eddie Hearn announced that he is hopeful it will be the last show that has to do so.
The COVID-19 pandemic completely ground live sports to a halt for several months in the spring of 2020, and Hearn was one of the combat sport executives on the front line of the gradual return with his 'Fight Camp' project, staging four cards in as many August weekends on the grounds of his headquarters in Brentwood with no fans and a "bubble" to make sure everyone on location was tested and safe.
Since then, cards have been staged worldwide inside "bubbles" and some events were even able to welcome a small number of socially-distanced fans, until last weekend's huge super-middleweight unification between Canelo Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders was permitted a capacity crowd of 70,000+ due to the latest rules in Texas.
Britain hopes to return to normal from June thanks in no small part to a successful vaccine rollout thus far, and Hearn fully intends to make sure Buatsi's latest challenge is the final time fans cannot attend at all.
"We're back in Manchester, hopefully the final event behind closed doors," were his words at the very top of Thursday's final press conference.
"Last Saturday, I'm not getting bored of telling you 73,000 fans were in the unbelievable AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas for the huge Canelo vs. Billy Joe Saunders fight.
"This will be the last time we're behind closed doors. It's been fun, the bubbles have been great, they've thrown up some unbelievable upsets and great fights as well.
"We will keep the bubble moving forward, but you will be allowed out - so good news for the fighters!"
The pandemic has led to a lot of fighters taking on more challenging assignments than they would have in their very next fight, and the women's scene in particular has benefitted from blistering outings such as Katie Taylor vs. Delfine Persoon 2, Terri Harper vs. Natasha Jonas and most recently, Taylor vs. Jonas in a London 2012 rematch.
Harper was set to compete in a super-featherweight unification fight against Hyun-mi Choi in the headliner this Saturday, but an injury to the Englishwoman meant Buatsi stepped up into the top slot.