By Tim Royner: Matchroom Sport announced today that over 70,000 tickets have already been sold for the Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker fight for March 31 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. The stadium seats 78,000 fans at full capacity, which is what Joshua’s last fight against Carlos Takam pulled in on October 28 at that venue.
The tickets are still on sale for the Joshua-Parker fight, but they’re expected to sellout entirely soon. It’s Unclear whether any additional seating can be found in the stadium by retrofitting.
Joshua’s fights have been selling out at a speedy pace in his last 3 fights, as he’s growing more popular each time he fights.
If Joshua winds up facing WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs), it’s going to be tough for the American heavyweight to make the case that their unification fight should take place in the States. Wilder, 32, doesn’t draw anywhere close to those kinds of numbers in his native home state of Alabama. Wilder can bring in fairly large crowds of 12,000 to 14,000, but he’s not going to attract big stadium sized crowds in the U.S.
Joshua vs. Wilder probably wouldn’t sellout a stadium in America. It would sell-out a venue like Madison Square Garden in New York or the Barclays Center, but not a stadium. Joshua isn’t well known enough in the U.S, and Wilder isn’t a big enough name for a fight between them to bring in huge crowds. Middleweight contender Saul Canelo Alvarez is the biggest star in the U.S followed by Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin.
At this point it doesn’t matter who Joshua fights. He brings in large crowds in the UK. The fans aren’t all that excited about Parker as Joshua’s opponent. They’re buying tickets because they want to see the 28-year-old Joshua fight. The fights that the boxing fans are interested in seeing is Joshua facing Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury. Those are big names that the fans want Joshua to tangle with. Joshua is facing Parker simply because he wants to win his World Boxing Organization heavyweight title to add it to his collection of belts.
Joshua holds 2 of the 4 heavyweight belts right now with the IBF and WBA straps. If he beats Parker, he’ll have the 3rd title. The last remaining belt after that is Wilder’s WBC strap. Once Joshua has that title in his possession, it’ll be all about defending them for as long as possible against the top heavyweights in the division. That’s where the hard part comes in. There will be a lot of amped up contenders trying to make a name for themselves and become rich by facing Joshua and pulling off an upset.