By Charles Brun: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and challenger Kubrat Pulev will soon know where their fight will be taking place. The location of their clash will be decided in the next three weeks, according to Pulev’s manager Ivaylo Gotsev.
Before pandemic hit, Joshua and Pulev were scheduled to fight on June 20 in Britain, but that’s not happening now.
Two leading option for the Joshua-Pulev fight is the UK and Croatia. Many fans wish Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) would just vacate his IBF title and forget about wasting a battle against the 39-year-old Pulev (28-1, 14 Kos).
There’s no fan interest in Joshua defending his IBF strap against Pulev rather than facing WBC champion Tyson Fury in a unification bout. Most people view Pulev as having no shot at beating Joshua, and they just want AJ to get the mismatch over with already.
Pulev’s promoter Bob Arum believes he’s going to beat Joshua, but that appears to be just bluster on his part. Arum has been around boxing long enough to know that Pulev has a slim chance of winning.
Pulev’s promoter interested in Croatia
“We’ve given ourselves four weeks to explore any and all opportunities that are there for the fight,” said Pulev’s manager Gotsev to Sky Sports. “Eddie is well aware of it – our team is aware of it. We’re discussing it as a possibility.
“Why Croatia? Well, first of all, when you look at the map of Europe, it’s right there in the center of the map, and it makes sense for our continent to host the event, and also, the venue itself is very inviting because it’s an open-air venue.”
Staging the Joshua vs. Pulev fight in Croatia won’t make AJ’s fans happy, but this might be the best bet of staging it in front of a live audience. The pandemic hasn’t hit Croatia as hard as it has other countries like England and the United States, and it’s a good option.
The fans can be spread out if they stage the fight at the Pula Arena in Croatia. However, the venue only seats 5,000 fans, but it’s doubtful that a lot of Joshua’s fans will travel to see the fight due to the pandemic.
Joshua’s popularity is too high for him to fight behind closed doors. His promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, won’t want to sacrifice all the gate money that they would lose if they took the clash without fans present.
Hearn still wants the fight to take place in the UK, but we’ll have to see whether the government will allow crowds to attend live events this year. If not, then Croatia or the Middle East will be the alternative possibilities.
