By Jeff Aronow: Anthony Joshua and his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev have agreed in principle for a main event fight on DAZN, possibly May 30th or June 6th. Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) will be defending his recently won IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight straps against former world title challenger Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs).
It’s expected that Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn have made a deal for WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk to wait until the second half of 2020 before they face him. It’s believed that’ll be the harder fight for Joshua, but you never know.
Pulev could be a problem for Joshua
The 6’4 1/2″ Pulev is capable of hitting hard at times when he puts his whole body into his shots. He knocked out Alexander Dimitrenko with an overhand right in 2012. Pulev also has wins over Dereck Chisora, Hughie Fury and Tony Thompson.
It’s an interesting fight. Pulev’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank Boxing has his mind made up that he’s going to beat Joshua, and then move on and face the winner of the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 2 rematch. If works out as Arum believes it’ll be, he’s going to be a happy promoter in 2020. Joshua and Fury would be meeting in late 2020, and Arum’s guy would win.
Hearn has 4 locations for Joshua vs. Pulev in UK
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has 4 locations all in the UK that he wants to stage the Joshua-Pulev fight, but we’ll have to see if that happens. There’s a huge money Joshua can make in fighting in Saudi once again, and Hearn likely won’t say no to that. @MikeCoppinger reported the news of the agreement in principle between Joshua and Pulev.
These are the locations in the UK that Hearn has mentioned:
- Principality, Cardiff, Wales
- Twickenham Stadium, London, UK
- Emirates Stadium, London
- Tottenham, London
Placing Joshua vs. Pulev in a giant stadium is hard to fathom, because the Bulgarian heavyweight isn’t popular outside of his native country. No one is excited about seeing Joshua fight Pulev. They want to see Joshua fight the winner of the Wilder vs. Fury 2 fight. There’s even boxing fans that want to see Joshua fight a thrilogy match against an in shape Andy Ruiz Jr. rather than seeing him fight Pulev.
The fact that Joshua can fill a stadium against a fighter of Pulev’s caliber shows how popular he is, because that fight doesn’t sell in the U.S. If Pulev fought Deontay Wilder in the States, the ticket sales would likely be poor.
When/if Joshua beats Pulev, his next fight is expected to be against his WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk. Hearn wants to try and get the winner of the Wilder-Fury 2 fight to face Joshua in an undisputed fight in 2020. But for that to happen, the loser of the Wilder vs. Fury 2 fight will have choose not to trigger the rematch clause to force the immediate rematch.
Hearn could make it worthwhile for the loser of the Wilder-Fury 2 fight to exercise the rematch clause by giving them a big step aside fee.