Thursday night's Top Rank on ESPN main event between junior welterweights Jose Pedraza and Mikkel LesPierre has been canceled after LesPierre's manager, Josie Taveras, tested positive for the coronavirus.
"The bottom line is the manager tested positive for COVID after the weigh-in yesterday," Brad Jacobs, chief operating officer for Top Rank, told ESPN on Thursday morning. "He was negative when he [was] tested when he arrived here on the 14th. The protocols were set. It calls for any team member that's been in close contact with the fighter, [if they test positive] the team's got to go."
A 10-round junior lightweight bout between blue-chip prospect Gabe Flores Jr. and Josec Ruiz has been elevated to the main event in Las Vegas.
"I am devastated," LesPierre said in a statement. "This was my opportunity to showcase my talent to the world, but everything happens for a reason. This is just another roadblock in my story.
"I apologize to Jose and his team for any inconvenience this caused. He is a great boxer, and I hope we can reschedule the fight as soon as possible."
Taveras also issued an apology for his role in the fight being canceled.
"I am not exhibiting any symptoms," Taveras said in a statement. "I am looking forward to hopefully rescheduling this fight as soon as possible. I am devastated for Mikkel."
"I'm in good spirits but I am disappointed I wasn't able to get in the ring after a very good training camp, a very strict training camp," Pedraza told ESPN. "But I'm disappointed I wont be able to showcase my talents tonight."
In situations like this, the Top Rank protocol is clearly defined: Anyone who tests positive will be barred, along with the fighter's team, from participating in the event. During the first week of fights at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas on June 9, Mikaela Mayer was pulled from her fight after she tested positive for the coronavirus.
"The only area that would be gray is if a test came back indeterminate, where you can't tell one way or the other," Jacobs said. "They then retest and you get a result."
Carl Moretti, Top Rank's vice president of boxing operations, said regulations on who can go to the fight will be amended going forward. Specifically, fighters can still bring their plus-2 , but now if they are with another promotional company (like LesPierre is), they no longer can bring a manager from that promotional company.
"There's not a new policy, what has always been the set policy has been: a fighter-plus two. If a fighter was in a main event, we would allow that main event fighter to either bring their manager and/or promotional representative, if they were with another promotional company.
"That courtesy, or whatever you want to call it, will now be retracted in light of what's going on, and we have to continue to limit the amount of people that actually get here," Moretti told ESPN.
As a front-desk employee at Mount Sinai's Beth Israel's Ear, Nose and Throat department in New York, LesPierre voluntarily was deployed to Beth Israel hospital as a runner to provide doctors and nurses with personal protective equipment starting in March during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in New York City.
After working on the front line and not contracting the coronavirus despite daily exposure to nurses and some patients since March, LesPierre now has had his fight called off due to the virus.
"That just shows that this affects everybody," LesPierre told ESPN. "You think that these things don't affect people personally. But this has affected me personally, prior to the fight [working at the hospital]. And now it has affected me drastically since I am not fighting [tonight]. Another humbling experience."
LesPierre's promoter, Lou DiBella, told ESPN that they will look to possibly reschedule the fight for July.
"Imagine working in a hospital for 3½ months in the middle of the crisis and you don't get it -- and you still don't have it -- and your fight's canceled because your manager tests positive," DiBella said.
LesPierre and Taveras said that, outside of two trips to breakfast and two trips to the gym to work out on Monday and Tuesday, the team stayed in their rooms and had food delivered for lunch and dinner. The LesPierre team said everyone tested Sunday night upon arrival to Las Vegas with throat swabs and that all tests were negative. They tested again on Tuesday, and Taveras' test came back positive.
"I got a call this morning that my manager tested positive for the antibodies and I don't understand how he could have tested positive for the antibody when he tested a couple of days ago and he was negative," LesPierre told ESPN.
"I took a blood test and a nose swab before I came here. Both came back negative. I took the test when I got here, it came back negative, and they said that I was negative with the test that I took yesterday, which was the throat swab. Honestly, I don't know."
Said Taveras: "Only thing we can do is go back to the drawing board, to have Mikkel stay positive. This is the fight that we want, and hopefully we can reschedule for July. Even if I don't have to come [next time], it's not a problem. Just to make it as safe as possible. I will do what is best for my fighter. If it is less risky for me not to come, I will not come."
"I'm not expecting to take a week of rest, I'm going back to training right away to stay in shape, to be ready for that call for July 14th, if that happens," Pedraza said.
Thus far, two weeks in, Jacobs said he is satisfied with how their protocols are operating.
"I couldn't be more pleased," Jacobs said. "There was a lot of man-hours put into preparation for this in front, and it's paying off in dividends now. The events have been running smoothly, the protocols have been running smoothly, everybody is working on wearing their masks and social distancing. Everything is working according to plan.
"But unfortunately, part of the plan was to address things like this," he continued. "It's for the betterment, the safety and health of everyone involved. It's an unfortunate byproduct of what we're dealing with."
The Nevada State Athletic Commission, in a statement, did not address medical results but said, "Top Rank's operational plan has proven to be effective and efficient, ensuring the health and safety of all personnel within the closed system event."
ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.