Daniel Dubois (15-0, 14 KOs) and Joe Joyce (11-0, 10 KOs) could be set for yet another delay to the anticipated British heavyweight fight that has been on the table since the beginning of 2020.
The two were originally set to meet on April 11, before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled that and every other live boxing card on the schedule at the time. There was hopes of re-arranging it for July, but that was ultimately deemed too soon.
With the sport slowly returning via a number of events behind closed doors, both men have returned to the ring with victories in tune-up fights and a new date of Oct. 24 was set up.
However Warren, who handles both fighters, has told the South London Press that another delay looks likely because Queensberry Promotions regard this as a bout too big for an empty arena.
“We’ve got to see whether we’re going to get a live crowd in there [in October]," Warren said of London's O2 Arena, the planned venue for the Oct. 24 date.
"Hopefully we’re going to get to know about that in the next week or so. It’s got to [go in front of a crowd] — it’s not something we want to be doing behind closed doors.
“It needs a live audience but, in saying that, we don’t know what is going to happen over the next six months regarding sport and live audiences.
“We’ve got to keep the sport going and keep the fights on. Joe got out against Michael Wallisch and it was Daniel’s chance Saturday. He’s done the business. Now we want to get the two guys in the ring and see who is best.
“Once the government give the green light we’ll obviously do what we need to do to make it happen.
“But if there is a problem and we can’t get bums on seats then we’ve got to make a commercial decision.”
Dubois' win on Saturday came 20 seconds into the second round of a one-sided blow-out of overmatched stand-in opponent from the Netherlands, Ricardo Snijders.
Joyce's win over Germany's Wallisch, meanwhile, was over after just 57 seconds of the third as both men continued their emphatic winning ways in shaking off the pandemic-enforced rust.