Whatever your thoughts on Karo Murat making a serious play for a light heavyweight title in 2020 and beyond, such chances still remain infinitely greater than his comeback taking place this weekend.

Efforts to revive a March 21 show which was to include the ring return of the 36-year old fringe contender proved futile. The card was initially rerouted from the Titanic Convention Center in Berlin to the in-house boxing gym of promoter EC Boxing in Hamburg, but not even a stripped-down version of the event will fly. Event handlers have since been ordered to shut down production altogether, in line with nearly every other sporting event around the world in the wake of a global health crisis.  

"Our hands are tied,” admitted promoter Erol Ceylan, who was prepared to present a five-fight card featuring Murat behind closed doors at ECB Boxgym. “We wanted to give the opportunity to our guys a chance to [remain active] even on a smaller stage, but the current situation won’t allow for it.”

Murat (32-4-1, 21KOs) was to appear in a six-round light heavyweight affair on the undercard of a show topped by a 10-round heavyweight bout between Munich’s Michael Wallisch (20-3, 13KOs) and Chemnitz’s Kai Kurzawa (38-9, 26KOs). Instead, he will have to extend his current inactive stretch which dates back to the aftermath of a December 2018 points loss to Sven Fornling in Hamburg. The defeat snapped a five-fight win streak after being stopped by then-unbeaten light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera in December 2015.

The lone other blemishes on Murat’s record have come versus title-level opposition.

The Armenia-born boxer—who now lives and trains in Kitzingen, Germany—was stopped in the 9th round of a September 2010 title eliminator versus then-unbeaten Nathan Cleverly, who went on to win the title just one fight later. Murat made his way to another elimination bout, where he fought former titlist Gabriel Campillo to a 12-round draw in October 2011. Two years later came his lone career title fight, falling well short versus then light heavyweight king Bernard Hopkins in October 2013.

Had the show proceeded as planned, Murat would have faced a significantly lower-tier opponent in Berlin’s Mazen Girke (15-108-6, 2KOs), a 36-year old southpaw who is winless in his last 44 starts dating back to January 2016.

That day could very well still come. It just won’t happen this weekend.

“We now need to exercise patience,” admits Ceylan. “No one can predict what [will come] in a few weeks. By joining forces, we will survive this difficult time.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox