Anthony Joshua could fight Kubrat Pulev this December

The pair were supposed to face each other on June 20 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but the coronavirus pandemic happened and the fight was cancelled.

Well, according to boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, Anthony Joshua will defend his WBA and IBO titles against Kubrat Pulev this December, but it is highly likely the fight will take place behind closed doors.

Hearn is still hoping to hold the bout at London’s O2 Arena and wants to leave it as late as possible in the hope of having fans present.

Speaking with ESPN, Hearn said:

We know AJ’s only going to fight once this year, so we want to give ourselves the best opportunity to bring in a crowd, and that would obviously be the later the better. But it’s still not a gimme at all. There’s still a very strong chance that AJ will have to fight behind closed doors.

Bearing in mind he’s only going to fight once this year, I just feel as we might as well give ourselves every chance to have a crowd and that will be the first weekend of December. Their regulations comply with the government, so at the moment they’re closed.

So they would need to open up. We’d need to get an understanding from the government what is allowed in arenas. Are you going to open at 50 percent [capacity]? Are you going to open up 100 percent? There’s a lot of work that has to go into that with the government and the O2 (Arena).

Recall that Joshua and Pulev were meant to fight on December 2, 2018, but Pulev had to decline the fight due to an injury, which led to Carols Takam taking up the wrestle with Anthony Joshua.

Hopefully, this fight doesn’t get rescheduled again.