COVID-19 Protocols in Place as Zamora Upends Blanco Before 800

“Nicaragua is a poor country and boxers have to eat,” said promoter Rosendo Alvarez by way of justification for the 8-fight card that he presented last night (May 25) at the Alexis Arguello Sports Center in Managua. Alvarez, a former world champion in the two smallest weight divisions, also noted that Nicaragua has been barely touched by the coronavirus. There have been only 12 confirmed cases and three deaths in a country of 6.5 million. Baseball and soccer leagues are still playing and the public schools were recently re-opened.

To stay on the safe side, however, attendees were required to wear masks and their hands were sprayed with disinfectant and their temperature was taken as they entered the arena. Once inside, they were required to sit one seat apart and every other row was left empty. This was easily accomplished as the estimated attendance was 800 in an arena capable of holding roughly 10 times as many. The officials, ring girls, cornermen, commentators and vendors all wore masks and the boxers were sprayed with disinfectant at the start of their bouts.

The main event was an 8-round contest between local lightweights Robin Zamora and Ramiro Blanco. This was a rematch. They met here on Oct. 26 of last year and Zamora scored a second round TKO. This was an upset even though Blanco was mired in a 4-fight losing streak as he had fought far stiffer competition. In his previous three bouts Blanco went the distance with Andres Gutierrez (36-2-1 heading in), Mickey Roman (60-13), and Jhonny Gonzalez (67-11) in 12-round affairs sanctioned for various regional titles and earlier in his career he went 12 with current WBA featherweight champion Can Xu on Xu’s turf in China.

In last night’s rematch, Zamora, a 22-year-old southpaw, pounded out a unanimous decision to prove that his triumph in their first meeting was no fluke. The scores were 78-74 and 77-75 twice. Although there were lulls in the action and multiple clinches, it was overall a good action fight with many robust exchanges. Zamora improved to 16-7 (8 KOs). Blanco declined to 18-8-3.

In an undercard bout of note, Freddy Fonseca (28-5-1, 19 KOs) stopped Alain Aguilar (8-8-1) who failed to answer the bell for the fifth round. Fonseca is the brother of Francisco Fonseca, the former two-time world title challenger who was recently starched by rising star Ryan Garcia.

Last night’s show likely provided a glimpse into the future. The restrictions in place will likely become normative when boxing resumes in other parts of the world. Moreover, if it can be shown that the event birthed no new infections, the pressure will increase to resurrect the sport and boxing will return sooner, rather than later.

That’s the best-case scenario. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

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