Hearn: “We’re Targeting The O2 Arena In December For Joshua v Pulev”

Eddie Hearn Targeting a December Date For Joshua - Pulev

Anthony Joshua (left), Eddie Hearn (center) and Kubrat Pulev together promoting their upcoming heavyweight title match
Anthony Joshua (left), Eddie Hearn (center) and Kubrat Pulev together promoting their upcoming heavyweight title match

Eddie Hearn Targeting a December Date For Joshua – Pulev


When it comes to WBA/WBO/IBF World Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs), it is no secret his next fight will be against IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev. The only question point is when the fight will take place. During an interview with ESPN, the champ’s promoter Eddie Hearn gave some further insight.

“Bearing in mind he’s only going to fight once this year, I just feel as we might as well give ourselves every chance to have a crowd and that will be the first weekend of December.”

London’s O2 Arena is the target building to stage the fight. The CEO went on to explain that they follow the new boxing guidelines set by the British Board Of Boxing Control.

“Their regulations comply with the government, so at the moment they’re closed. So they would need to open up. We’d need to get an understanding from the government what is allowed in arenas. Are you going to open at 50 percent [capacity]? Are you going to open up 100 percent? There’s a lot of work that has to go into that with the government and the O2.”

Joshua – Pulev was originally going to take place on June 20 in London. However, it would see a delay due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Joshua has not fought since regaining the titles against Andy Ruiz on December 7, 2019. Reasonably, he has a strong desire to fight this year for a multitude of reasons. Not only does the 30-year-old from London want to get active and shake off the ring rust, but he also wants to get past this mandatory fight to move on to what could be a humongous 2021.

He has already agreed to a two-fight deal to face current WBC World Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) next year. So it’s safe to say that “AJ” cannot afford to slip up against the grizzled vet. Stay tuned to 3KingsBoxing for further details on when this fight is finalized.

By: Michael Wilson Jr.

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About Mike W.1943 Articles
Mike is the host of boxing podcast "Pound 4 Pound Boxing Report" and is a Senior Writer for 3kingsboxing.com.