Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko 2 rematch likely at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas

By Boxing News - 07/14/2017 - Comments

Image: Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko 2 rematch likely at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas

By Scott Gilfoid: The Wladimir Klitschko vs. Anthony Joshua rematch appears to be headed towards the States at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport.

Hearn reportedly went out to Las Vegas to check out the 20,000 seat arena. It’s looking like that’s where the fight will be taking place. That’s good news for the U.S boxing fans, as well as for Klitschko. He fought Joshua in front of a huge crowd of 90,000 fans on April 29 earlier this year at Wembley Stadium in London, England. To say that Joshua had a big advantage due to the large pro-Joshua crowd is putting it lightly. Take away the crowd and put the fight in a neutral venue, and Wladimir maybe wins the fight. It’s good that the second fight will likely be taking place in a neutral venue. We can see which of the two the actual better fighter is this time.

The other options for the Joshua-Klitschko 2 rematch were Dubai, Nigeria and Cardiff, according to Sky Sports News. They might as well have had the rematch back at Wembley Stadium if they selected those areas, as Joshua would likely be the crowd favorite putting the fights there.

“We met with Richard Sturm and the team at MGM in Las Vegas yesterday and had a full tour of the T-Mobile Arena which is very impressive,” Hearn said to skysports.com. “There is a huge appetite from both sides to hold the rematch there and we will be talking further over the next week or so to see if that can become a reality.”

The T-Mobile Arena is where the Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez mega-fight will be taking place on September 16 on HBO PPV. Further, the big fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor will be staged there as well. It must be a good place for important fights like that to be staged at the T-Mobile.

The only drawback to the Klitschko vs. Joshua 2 fight taking place at the T-Mobile Arena is the limited seating capacity. When you’re talking only 20K seats, it’s not a lot of boxing fans that will get a chance to see the fight live. The ones that can’t get tickets will be stuck watching it on television.

Even if they end up seeing it on a large screen on closed circuit, it’s still not the same as seeing it live in person. It’s too bad Las Vegas doesn’t have a large 90,000 seat stadium like the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. That would be ideal for huge sporting events like the mega-fights. However, Joshua vs. Klitschko probably would be a waste for a large 90,000 seat stadium.

I don’t think they would get more than 20,000 fans to attend the fight unless a ton of Joshua’s British fans fly over. Joshua isn’t a big name in the U.S with the casual boxing fans. Wladimir isn’t a big name either with casual fans in the States. To become popular in the U.S, you need to fight there a lot like Golovkin has been doing, and you need to have an exciting fighting style.

Joshua gets a lot of knockouts, but his fights are being staged in the UK in front of his own fans. It’s only recently that Joshua’s fights have started to be piped into the U.S on Showtime Championship Boxing. The time that the fights are being shown in the U.S is not ideal. It’s earlier in the day. It’s definitely the wrong time.

”Site visit at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas @SkySportsBoxing #MatchroomBoxingUSA,” said Hearn on his Twitter.

Wladimir had Joshua down on the canvas in the 6th round in their fight on April 29. It looked like curtains for Joshua, but then Wladimir went into the play it safe move and let him survive. I don’t know what happened in Wladimir’s corner, but his trainer should have been lighting a fire under his backside to get him to finish off the badly hurt and exhausted Joshua. If it had been me in the corner, I would have been screaming at 42-year-old Wladimir to get the job done. Wladimir’s late trainer Emanuel Steward would have been reading him the riot act in between rounds. Steward would have gotten some effort out of Wladimir.

You take the Joshua vs. Klitschko I fight and put it anywhere else other than the UK, then that fight has a different outcome. I hate to say it, but Joshua won because of the huge pro-Joshua crowd. He wasn’t the better man. He just had a mess of boxing fans that willed him into winning by screaming their heads off in the 11th round. That’s my take on the fight. Joshua looked awful for the first 10 rounds. All that useless muscle Joshua was carrying around was like lead weight for him. I hope for Joshua’s sake that he trims that muscle off for the rematch, considering he’s going to gas out just like he did last time if he comes into the fight looking like a bodybuilder again. I’m just saying.