If nothing at all else, Gianluca Di Caro is a social media pro.

The native Londoner numbers his Facebook friends by the thousands and among them lists many of the promoters, fighters, media members and other “boxing people” familiar to mainstream fans.

And he’s not above using those connections to get things done.

Already the executive vice president and CEO of the British & Irish Boxing Authority, and vice president of the Malta Boxing Commission, Di Caro is working behind the scenes these days to try and get a new repository for worldwide fight results – BoxRanking.com – up and running.

It’s most similar in form and function to long-standing online resource BoxRec.com, but superior, in his estimation, because its content would be controlled exclusively by official commissions – not unaffiliated editorial personnel – and therefore, he says, could be better relied upon for its accuracy.

Additionally, it’d be free from what he labels a “protectionist” approach taken by BoxRec that, in his estimation, causes problems for any commission/organization with whom BoxRec is not officially linked.

“The purpose of BoxRanking is to provide 100 percent accurate records for matching of contests, to prevent dangerously mismatched contests,” Di Caro said. “It was created by David Pitois following discussions with commissions worldwide over the lack of an easily accessible and, more importantly, accurate record-keeping website.”

If all goes well, he said, the website will be fully updated and functional by the end of the month.

“We had been discussing this for around four years now, then last year at the Association of Professional Boxing Commissions conference the concept of a new independent site was proposed,” Di Caro said. “Unbelievably positive response from everybody – commissions, boxers, promoters and even fans of the sport. Most people in the sport have been calling for a new and more importantly accurate and unbiased alternative to BoxRec be available online.

“Currently we are targeting the commissions and championships as without them actively being part of the project it would be impossible to ensure 100 percent accuracy.”

BoxingScene.com chatted further with Di Caro about the idea outcome of the BoxRanking endeavor and got his views on how the sport will emerge from the global pandemic and whether he thinks UFC President Dana White is making the right move by restarting his company with fights this weekend.

BoxingScene.com: If we have this conversation again a year from now, what's the ideal? Has BoxRanking completely replaced BoxRec? Is there room for multiple sites with essentially the same mission, or does it have to be a "one man at the top of the mountain" scenario?

Gianluca Di Caro: In a perfect world yes, BoxRanking would replace BoxRec as the place to go for boxers’ records for matching. Fight Fax, now known as Pro Boxing Records. is the long-time official record keeper which also only accept submissions of results from commissions and are 100 percent accurate. Unfortunately, though, their records are not accessible online currently. Hopefully that'll change soon, too, and then finally those in the sport as well as the fans will have a choice on who to go to for accurate records.

BoxingScene.com: How are things for you during the pandemic? Where are you riding things out? Are you and those around you healthy?

Di Caro: The entire BIBA team are all safe and well and we have been working on the sanctioning plans for events, whether behind closed doors or limited spectators. We literally are ready to get back to business – have venues, doctors, paramedics and specialist medics, and have COVID-19 test kits and antibody kits, full personal protection suits, visors, etc., for everyone in attendance as well as the obvious like ambulances. Also, to be on the safe side we have an air ambulance in case we can’t use NHS hospitals and we need to transfer any head trauma cases to a private facility within 40 minutes flight time. And we have five broadcasters around the world locked in to broadcast the events live.

BoxingScene.com: How damaging is it to the smaller promoters and fighters -- the ones without the giant bankrolls to fall back on? Will they bounce back or will some not be able to recover?

Di Caro: I would hope within a year we get back to boxing events just the way things were before lockdown, however if not we have contingency plans in place, so our promoters are covered – such as broadcast deals and sponsors. I think the small hall promoters will suffer worse than those with broadcast deals, but we could even see them suffer if this drags on for more than six months. If it is more than six months, I cannot see many if any smaller promoters surviving. I think most will walk away.

On the fighter side, if the small hall promoters fold, it’ll affect the sport and fighters badly as they tend to be the starting point for most fighters starting out and building their fan base. All in all, it’s a scary time, but one that the sport will survive.

BoxingScene.com: What is your view of Dana White and his decision to restart his business this weekend? Is he a brave, forward-thinker or is he taking too big a risk? If you were in his shoes, would you go ahead and put on events?

Di Caro: Our board has some of the top medical people in the business, people like Professor Michael Graham, we even have a virologist who is on the board as well as current fighters – so we are probably the most knowledgeable of commissions when it comes to this pandemic and there’s no way we could condone a promoter hosting an event in the UK at this time, even a behind closed doors one.

I think the UFC are totally irresponsible returning to the business of combat sports this early. I am shocked it’s happening so soon.

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This week’s title-fight schedule:

No title fights scheduled.

Last week's picks: None
2020 picks record: 14-3 (82.3 percent)
Overall picks record: 1,130-368 (75.4 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.