Competitors expressed concerns about tire wear on the dirt surface at Bristol Motor Speedway ahead of Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race there, the first dirt race for the NASCAR Cup Series since 1970. As a result, NASCAR made changes that included stage lengths and tire allotment.

“We’re seeing a lot of tires getting corded pretty quickly, especially right-rears, even right-fronts started to go pretty quick, so that’s something that’s gonna come into play is saving your tires when the track is probably gonna be like this come race time,” Ryan Blaney, the fastest driver in the last of two practice sessions, said Friday.

Originally teams were allotted five sets of tires across the 250-lap race and a 15-lap qualifying heat race Saturday. That allotment has been increased to six sets, and opportunities to change tires have been added. The race orginally was scheduled as a 250-lap race, divided into two 75-lp stages and a 100-lap stage. The race remains at 250 total laps, but the first two stages each have been lengthened to 100 laps, leaving a 50-lap third stage. The newly-created 100-lap first and second stages each will be divided into two segments with the addition of competition cautions on lap 50 and lap 150.

Utilizing a dirt-type format unusual to NASCAR, Sunday’s race will not include competitive pit stops. Instead, teams will only be allowed to change tires and add fuel during the scheduled cautions. Teams will have three minutes to make pit stops and will not lose positions on pit road.

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Eddie Hearn’s four-weekend experiment in his own back garden concludes with the fourth Fight Camp event on Saturday, Aug. 22.

Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin clash for the right to be considered the WBC’s mandatory challenger to Tyson Fury (or Deontay Wilder, should the trilogy fight happen anytime soon and end in victory for the Bronze Bomber) in an eagerly anticipated heavyweight main event.

In chief support, Katie Taylor will defend the undisputed women’s lightweight championship against Delfine Persoon, whom she defeated via an extremely polarising decision following a closely contested thriller at Madison Square Garden last summer.

Both Whyte and Povetkin will know that nothing other than a victory will suffice if they are to attempt to muscle in on the top of a maximum-weight division that is really taking shape with the likes of Fury, Wilder and Anthony Joshua.

Meanwhile, Hearn has been quoted as saying that Taylor was “fuming” after enduring over a year of taunts from Persoon and numerous fight fans who regarded the decision to award the first fight — one Hearn called “one of the best he’s ever seen” — to the champ as daylight robbery.

The bad blood between the women and the punching power of the heavyweights should guarantee an exciting conclusion to what has so far been a successful attempt by Matchroom to find a way to provide live boxing in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s a complete guide to the big event:

Dillian Whyte vs. Alexander Povetkin, Katie Taylor vs. Delfine Persoon fight date, start time

Date: Saturday, Aug. 22
Time: 7 p.m. BST/2 p.m. ET

Fight Camp 4 will begin at 7 p.m. BST/2 p.m. ET with main event ringwalks anticipated for around 10 p.m. BST/5 p.m. ET, although the time depends on the length of the earlier fights.

Whyte vs. Povetkin, Taylor vs. Persoon TV channel, live stream

U.K.: Sky Sports Box Office
U.S.: DAZN

DAZN will also be showing Fight Camp 4 Whyte vs. Povetkin live stream and exclusively in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

Jack Cullen will face Zak Chelli in a 10-round contest at super-middleweight contest on Aug. 22 when Dillian Whyte defends the interim WBC heavyweight championship against Alexander Povetkin at Matchroom’s Fight Camp 4.

Cullen (18-2, 9 KOs) narrowly lost out to Commonwealth middleweight kingpin Felix Cash — who headlines the third card at Matchroom’s Mascalls HQ in Brentwood this Friday — in a thrilling war last November but bounced back by stopping Tomas Andres Reynoso in March.

The forrmer English middleweight champ will hope to return to winning ways at the expense of former Southern Area super-middleweight titleholder Chelli (7-1, 3 KOs), who comes into this clash off the back of defeat. The Londoner suffered the first loss of his professional career to Wales’ Kody Davies at light-heavyweight almost one year ago at York Hall.

The spotlight offered beneath Povetkin vs Whyte fight and Katie Taylor’s undisputed lightweight championship defence in a rematch with Define Persoon offers both Cullen and Chelli the chance make serious strides forward in a competitive domestic 168-pound division.

Also on the card, Luther Clay (13-1, 5 KOs) defends his WBO global welterweight strap against Chris Kongo (11-0, 6 KOs), and more fights are expected to be confirmed soon.

Dillian Whyte’s interim WBC heavyweight title clash with Alexander Povetkin looks likely to go ahead on August 15 in the grounds of Matchroom’s headquarters in Essex after the Manchester show that was to have included it was formally cancelled.

The show had originally been scheduled for May but was pushed back to July 4 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now that show has been scrapped altogether, while two other shows from July – Lee Selby’s IBF lightweight title eliminator against George Kambosos Jr and Lewis Ritson’s fight with Miguel Vazquez – have been moved to October 3 and October 17 respectively.

It has long been known that no shows would take place before fans in the UK for the foreseeable future and Eddie Hearn revealed to Boxing Scene last week that Whyte Povetkin fights would feature on the fourth and final edition of his outdoor Fight Camp show in Brentwood, alongside Katie Taylor’s world lightweight title defence against Amanda Serrano.

The show would be on Sky Box Office in the UK and DAZN in North America.

It now looks likely that the Fight Camp series will begin on July 25, meaning the Whyte-Povetkin bill should be on August 15.

Plans for the show received a boost this week from the UK Government, which confirmed that elite sportspersons would be excluded from the 14-day quarantine restrictions that are to be placed on anyone arriving into the UK from June 8. The quarantine would affect any overseas officials, however.

Hearn revealed that he now hopes that the first show of Fight Camp will feature Chris Jenkins defending his British and Commonwealth welterweight titles against Conor Benn. Hearn had originally hoped to match Benn with Johnny Garton, the former British champion, only for Garton to decide to retire.

“In an ideal world that is the fight I would like to headline on July 25 to start us,” Hearn said to IFL TV.

Other fights agreed for the series include Terri Harper making the first defence of her WBC super-featherweight title against Natasha Jonas, Simon Vallily v Fabio Wardley for the English heavyweight title and James Tennyson against Gavin Gwynne for the vacant British lightweight title.

Luther Clay and Chris Kong are due to meet in a clash of welterweight prospects, while Chris Billam-Smith will face Nathan Thorley for the English cruiserweight title.

Hearn says he is also trying to make a fight between Ted Cheeseman and Sam Eggington, as well as Jason Quigley against Jack Cullen and Jordan Gill against Reece Bellotti. Callum Johnson, Zelfa Barrett, Kash Farooq and Shannon Courtenay will also be featured.

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 – covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.

Courtesy of Ron Lewis from BoxingScene.com

Heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte is not concerned with Derek Chisora’s recent threat of traveling over to Russia to help prepare Alexander Povetkin.

Povetkin and Whyte were scheduled to collide this month, but their fight was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. There is a tentative date in July, which is likely not going to happen as planned. The new date may come down in late July or early August 8 or 15.

Chisora has already spoken with Povetkin about flying over to Russia to help him prepare for Whyte.

“I’ve already said to Povetkin that, if he needs me, I’ll come and help him. I’ll fly to Russia,” Chisora told The Boxing Show on Sky Sports.

“He said that he’d get me a private jet to come. Povetkin is my boy. I don’t care [what Whyte has to say]. The Russian has already spoken to me and said: ‘When it’s time I’ll send a plane to pick you up and you can help me train’. I’m down for that.”

Chisora believes he was robbed of a win when he lost a twelve round split decision to Whyte in December 2016. In their 2018 rematch, Chisora was up on points when he was knocked out in the eleventh round.

Whyte believes Chisora is simply talking smack to secure himself a trilogy bout.

If Chisora is able to defeat his upcoming opponent, Oleksandr Usyk, then Whyte has promised to hand him another brutal knockout.

“It’s Derek being Derek. He’s good at talking his way into an ass-whooping. The first time he said it was close. The second time I cleaned his clock. The knockout I gave him was one of the worst you will see in boxing,” Whyte told Sky Sports.

“I ain’t got no beef with Derek. I’m cool with the guy but clearly he has a vendetta. Derek is a stepping stone and I’ve stepped over him twice already. If he wants to be brutally knocked out again I’ll take some easy money! If he beats Oleksandr Usyk and there’s a belt on the line, I’d gladly take the belt off of him.”

Courtesy of BoxingScene Staff

Derek Chisora is ready to help former WBA champion Alexander Povetkin take down Dillian Whyte.

Povetkin vs Whyte were scheduled to collide this month, but their fight was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. There is a tentative date in July, which is likely not going to happen as planned.

The new date may come down in late July or early August.

Chisora has already spoken with Povetkin about flying over to Russia to help him prepare for Whyte.

“I’ve already said to Povetkin that, if he needs me, I’ll come and help him. I’ll fly to Russia,” Chisora told The Boxing Show on Sky Sports.

“He said that he’d get me a private jet to come. Povetkin is my boy. I don’t care [what Whyte has to say]. The Russian has already spoken to me and said: ‘When it’s time I’ll send a plane to pick you up and you can help me train’. I’m down for that.”

Chisora believes he was robbed of a win when he lost a twelve round split decision to Whyte in December 2016. In their 2018 rematch, Chisora was up on points when he was knocked out in the eleventh round.

He does expect a trilogy fight to happen at some point down the line.

“It is going to happen,” Chisora said. “The United Kingdom would want to watch that again.

“I’m open to any fight. As long as I can lace up the gloves I’m ready to rock ‘n’ roll anytime.”

Promoter Eddie Hearn is looking to stage Whyte-Povetkin in a closed doors setting in the UK – while Chisora might fight former unified cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk abroad.

“We have to come back with a bang. Whyte vs Povetkin, along with Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano, is a fight that I believe we will see at the end of July or early-August,” Hearn previously told The Boxing Show.

Courtesy of BoxingScene Staff 

Dillian Whyte will face Alexander Povetkin on August 8 or 15 in a pay-per-view show that is also set to feature Katie Taylor putting her world lightweight titles on the line against seven-weight world champion Amanda Serrano.

Both fights had originally been scheduled for Manchester this month but were postponed because of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now they are lined up to go ahead as the fourth and final night of Matchroom’s behind-closed-doors Fight Camp in the grounds of the company headquarters in Brentwood, Essex.

Fight Camp now has a start date on July 18 or 25 and will run for four consecutive Saturday nights. Preparations moved a stage closer on Wednesday at a meeting with Arena Events – the company that built the temporary Diriyah Arena on the outskirts of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for December’s Anthony Joshua-Andy Ruiz rematch – to finalise plans for the venue.

Eddie Hearn had originally planned to start the series of fights on July 4 but has now decided to push the start date back at least two weeks.

“When this all started, I was just thinking ’we have got to be the first back, we have to get started’,” Hearn told Boxing Scene. “As the planning and time has passed us by, I am starting to realise that the longer you leave it the fewer obstacles and barriers will be in place.

“But there is a fine line between making sure we get back promptly and making sure that we don’t give ourselves an impossible job or a job that would jeopardise the safety of the fighters or the quality of the show.

“What seems to be difficult in the UK compared to other places in the world is that people just aren’t in the gym. They are training, but not really. Private gyms re now open, but the Board (British Boxing Board of Control) are saying don’t spar yet.

“I started off thinking July 4, but then you realise that is six weeks away. I appreciate that some people are only going to need a month to get ready, but some people are going to need eight weeks. So I am looking at July 18 or 25 as our start date for the UK Fight Camp.”

The first show is likely to feature Terri Harper defending her WBC super-featherweight title against Natasha Jonas, while Povetkin and Serrano are the only boxer from outside the UK or Ireland that have been approached to box on the shows. With quarantine restrictions set to be imposed on people coming into the UK from June 8, both are likely to have to arrive in Great Britain at least two weeks before their bouts.

“I think it is going to look great,” Hearn said. “I didn’t want to do anything in a studio or a gym for multiple reasons. One, because it is going to look terrible, two, it is just is uncreative and not just what boxing is about, and three, for the fighters, as well.

“It is going to be very hard for them to get up for this in the way they do walking into a packed arena, or peaking at the right moment, but if you are in some kind of amphitheatre with the house lit up, London in the background, fireworks going off on the lawn, at least you feel your heart racing and you can get up for what might be the most important fight of your career.

“The venue is fine for ambulances and lorries and such, there is a clear path down the side of the house. There will not be masses of vehicles because there will only be about 90 people on site.

“I don’t want to come back like Top Rank are in America, with Shakur Stevenson against some bloke you have never heard of.

“It is challenging, there are loads of obstacles, it is expensive, but I feel this is something we are going to be remembered for, a bit like Wembley with Froch-Groves or Joshua-Klitschko. I’d like to be the one that came back with something different.”

Rescheduling the Whyte-Povetkin and Taylor-Serrano show to behind-closed-doors proved a more viable option than Oleksandr Usyk v Dereck Chisora, which is also currently seeking a new date, having originally been scheduled for the O2 Arena, London, last weekend.

“Whyte-Povetkin a smaller gate in Manchester and the costs are going to be a bit smaller because of the economies of scale,” Hearn said. “This will now be one of four events outside, compared to hiring Manchester Arena and lots of hotels and flights. We are cutting the card from ten fights to five fights. That will save some money.

“The sport has to move with the times. It is going to cost us £30,000 a show for testing, it is a lot of money. We have got no choice but to return, really, it is just a case of how much money you want to stick in.

“Hopefully in eight weeks’ time things will not be as difficult as they are now. We are planning like it is a military operation.”

As well as Harper v Jonas, other fights Hearn is hoping to make for the Fight Camp series include Anthony Fowler against former European welterweight champion Sam Eggington, Conor Benn against former British welterweight champion Johnny Garton and a clash between welterweight prospects Chris Kongo and Luther Clay.

“The bigger names are not going to come back, apart from Dillian Whyte who will be on fourth week,” Hearn said. “But, generally, I just want to put on a good card. Five fights a night, so no gimmee fights, no eight-rounders against some guy who was just brought it, they will be proper fights.”

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 – covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.

Courtesy of Ron Lewis from Boxing Scene