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Boxing News of Tuesday, 4 August 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Anthony Joshua, Kubrat Pulev to fight in December

Anthony Joshua and Kubrat Pulev Anthony Joshua and Kubrat Pulev

Anthony Joshua has been scheduled to defend his WBO, WBA and IBF titles against Kubrat Pulev in December.

The bout which would have taken place at the Tottenham Hotspurs stadium in June was postponed due to the coronavirus lockdown period.

The O2 Arena in London will now host both boxers in December as revealed by Anthony Joshua's manager, Eddie Hearn.

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).”

If Anthony Joshua successfully defends his titles, he's expected to go for a unification bout against Tyson Fury who holds the WBC title.