By Charles Brun: The management for 39-year-old Kubrat Pulev (28-1, 14 K.O.s) is interested in taking his title challenge of IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (23-1, 21 K.O.s) to Croatia at a Roman amphitheater.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is interested in having the Joshua-Pulev fight take place in the Middle East if possible.
Joshua was supposed to get the fight out of the way against IBF mandatory Pulev in June in London, UK, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The global pandemic led to the fight being postponed.
Lot of competition for Joshua vs. Pulev
Pulev’s manager Ivaylo Gotsev is interested in taking the Joshua fight to Croatia at the Pula Arena. It’s unclear whether staging the event in Croatia would give the 40-ish Pulev much of an advantage. The former world heavyweight world title challenger Pulev can’t punch, and he’s pretty old.
Although Pulev has won his last eight fights since losing to former IBF/IBO/WBA champion Wladimir Klitschko by a 5th round knockout in November 2014, he’s not fought great opposition. Pulev’s best win in the last five years was against fringe contender Dereck Chisora in 2016.
“For our part, we are discussing Croatia,” Gotsev told local Bulgarian media. “There is a unique Roman stadium ‘Pula Arena,’ and we are in an active conversation. We like this variant because it is in Europe, in the middle of the continent. The arena itself predisposes to an unprecedented event in our times.
“There must be mutual consent. We want the conditions and rules to be favorable for both parties. Hearn is talking about the Middle East, and we have left it to him to communicate in that direction,” said Gotsev.
It’s not realistic to assume that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn will place the Pulev fight in Croatia, but you can’t blame Team Pulev for trying. Hearn will be looking to stage the fight in another location where they can not only make more money, but it would also ensure that Joshua has the boxing crowd on his side.
Putting the fight in Croatia might mean that Pulev would have an advantage in the fan applause.
Joshua needs the fans supporting him
This wouldn’t be a big deal if Joshua were someone that could be counted on to mentally shutout the crowd noise, but as we saw in A.J.’s loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. in New York in 2019, he doesn’t fight well when he has the fans going against him.
If Joshua crumbles mentally against Pulev as he did, Ruiz, he’ll likely lose again. Joshua doesn’t have the Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield single-minded determination to win regardless of whether he’s being cheered or not. A big part of the reason for that is Hearn has kept Joshua at home fighting in the U.K. most of his career.
The only time he’s fought outside of the U.K. where when he traveled to the U.S. and was humiliated by Andy Ruiz in New York and then taken to Saudi Arabia after that. Saudi might as well have been England given the considerable fan support A.J. enjoyed there.
“Bulgaria cannot be, because Joshua will not agree. He wanted to be home, but force majeure led to a change,” said Gotsev. “Kubrat was ready to fight in Joshua’s backyard and even if his family were judges!”
It’s easy to understand why Joshua wouldn’t want to fight Pulev in Bulgaria because that would put him in a situation where he would be the visitor, and he might need a knockout to win. Joshua would still likely win easily, but you never know.
Pulev roughed up former WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter in their fight in Bulgaria in 2016, and you can argue he Kubrat should have been penalized for some of the outhouse tactics he used in that fight.
