By Barry Holbrook: Anthony Joshua will be defending his heavyweight titles in front of a sold-out Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on September 25th when he battles his WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk.
Earlier today, it was announced that the tickets for Joshua vs. Usyk have already sold out in the first 24 hours after having gone on Saturday this week.
At the time of the sell-out today, it was reported more than 100K boxing fans were waiting in the StubHub ticket queue for the chance to purchase tickets for the September 25th Joshua-Usyk fight at the 60,000 seat Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
This was the seventh fight for which Joshua has sold out a venue during his eight-year professional career.
Joshua’s sold-out fights:
- Andy Ruiz Jr at MSG, New York
- Andy Ruiz Jr II Diriyah Arena, Saudi Arabia
- Joseph Parker – Principality Stadium, Cardiff
- Oleksandr Usyk – Tottenham Stadium, London
- Alexander Povetkin – Wembley Arena, London
- Eric Molina – Manchester Arena, Manchester
- Dominic Breazeale – O2 Arena, London
While, at first glance, it may seem that fans quickly snatched up all the tickets, but the reality is that the ticket resellers likely purchased the bulk of them. They’ll now be reselling them at a higher price. The Joshua vs. Usyk fight will be sold out; that’s the main thing.
There’s a lot of interest from boxing fans in seeing the two 2012 Olympic gold medalists battle it out on September 25th.
Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) is a newcomer to the heavyweight division, having started his career at cruiserweight in 2013 and only moving up in weight in 209 after becoming the undisputed champion.
Usyk hasn’t looked overwhelming at heavyweight
In his two fights at heavyweight, Usyk, 34, has shown promise, being Chazz Witherspoon and Derek Chisora.
The performances by Usyk weren’t quite good enough for the fans and oddsmakers to pick him to beat IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs).
Usyk hasn’t looked stellar in his two fights in the weight class, which means he’s going to need to raise his game considerably for him to beat Joshua.
AJ, 31, looked great in his last fight, stopping his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev by a 9th round knockout on December 12th last year.
Now, Joshua is trapped with another mandatory against Usyk, and he’s not too pleased about it.
Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn wanted to move towards the bigger fights in the division, but unfortunately, he’s got to continue making defenses of his belts.
That’s one of the downsides for fighters that try and collect a lot of titles. When they do that, they’re forced to defend them yearly, which leaves little time for them to fight the guys they and their promoters want.
Will Fury vs. Wilder 3 sell out?
With WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury defending against Deontay Wilder on October 9th, it’s going to be interesting to see if the two can sell out the 20,000 seats T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
If Fury vs. Wilder 3 are unable to sell it out, it’s going to reflect badly on them, particularly Tyson. He’s considered Joshua’s main competitor in the division, and it’s hard to argue that he rates the same kind of financial deal if he can’t sell tickets.
Eddie Hearn revealed recently in an interview that his sources had told him that ticket sales were moving slowly for the postponed July 24th fight between Fury and Wilder.
Some believe the real reason for the fight being moved off the July 24th date was because of slow ticket sales, not because of Fury coming down with COVID-19.
There haven’t been any reports yet on how the ticket sales are going for the October 9th Fury vs. Wilder III fight. Hopefully, they sell out soon.