By Norm Frauenheim-
In the bubble, out of the bubble.
It doesn’t matter where you are these days. There’s not much protection from anything. If it’s not COVID, it’s uncertainty. It’s the uncertainty that infects everyone, everything. It’s the symptom for which there is no treatment. No quarantine.
A dispiriting reminder of that came with news that UK promoter Eddie Hearn has tested positive. He announced it on his twitter account Thursday.
“Gutted to just find out I tested positive for Covid-19 today and have to leave the bubble immediately. Thankfully all other tests were negative. Heading home to rest – catch up tomorrow,’’ Hearn tweeted.
Then, he tweeted a photo of himself at work on a speed bag.
Godspeed, get well soon, Eddie.
Hearn was at work, promoting a card Sunday featuring light-heavyweights Joshua Buatsi (12-0, 10 KOs) and Croatia’s Marko Calic (11-0, 6KOs) at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes, England.
All 12 fighters on the card, the fourth in Hearn’s Fight Camp series, tested negative. The show goes on. So, too, will the Pandemic, random and tenacious. Exhausting and seemingly endless.
There are moments when you wonder when it will end and what will be left. Boxing survives. It always does, in large part because of the energy and over-the-top confidence that Hearn and his rival promoters have for the timeless game. Their promotional hype is annoying. But in the here and now, I miss it. I can laugh at the hype. I can argue with it. But there’s no fighting the Pandemic. Hide and hope are the only combo in a futile fight with no good counter.
The hope is for a game that comes back as it was about seven months ago. Through Tyson Fury’s stoppage of Deontay Wilder in a heavyweight rematch on Feb. 22, boxing was in a comfortable rhythm. The trash talk was loud. The lies were outrageous. All of the usual suspects were there. The scripted chaos was comforting, or at least it looks that way now when only uncomfortable uncertainty is real.
October looms with reasons to be hopeful. Above all, there is Vasiliy Lomachenko versus Teofimo Lopez on Oct 17 in a lightweight bout loaded with pound-for-pound significance. There’s also Naoya Inoue, a three-division champion and bantamweight whirlwind last seen in a November victory over Nonito Donaire in a Fight of the Year – just about any year. A year later, Inoue is back on Oct. 31 against Jason Moloney. The Monster on Halloween. It’s a comeback party.
But Hearn’s positive test is a reminder that nobody can count on much of anything amid a Pandemic that looks to be mounting a comeback of its own this fall. Lomachenko-Lopez, Inoue-Moloney and a projected third fight between Fury and Wilder, perhaps in December, are three legs toward a recovery. But the Hearn news is reason to be wary.
It’s also reason for frustration, which Fury has begun to express at further news that the second rematch with Wilder will probably be moved from its targeted date, Dec. 19. The trilogy bout has skipped across the calendar like a flat stone on a pond. Excuse Fury if he’s lost count. Everybody has. Now, Fury, who has been training since March, says he intends to fight before the year ends. Pandemic-Slamdemic, Fury has had it.
“I’m very ready to fight right now, but the problem is I keep hearing different stories,’’ Fury told Talk Sport. “I’m supposed to be fighting against Deontay Wilder on December 19 in Las Vegas. Recently I read they’re trying to move it forward a week or back a week, but the one thing I want to announce to the world is I will be fighting in December.
“Whether it is Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas or Joe Bloggs in England, I want to fight. We are just waiting for the fight to be announced. If they put it back to next year, I want to fight now.
“I made it very, very clear that if we can’t fight in America, then I want to come back to England and have a homecoming. I’m about an hour from going AWOL. I need to know what’s happening because the dates keep getting moved. Now they’re saying December might not happen. BT Sport, if you’re listening, get your hand in your pocket and get me back home. I’m on the verge of going AWOL again.’’
Absent Without Leave is something of a euphemism, Fury’s way of saying the Pandemic’s uncertainty is about to send him back around the bend, back into the depression he has fought and still fights.
These days, there’s no escape. If the COVID doesn’t get you, the uncertainty will.
