SAN FRANCISCO, October 28, (THEWILL) – Heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua will defend his WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight titles against the Bulgarian professional boxer Kubrat Pulev at The O2 in London, England, on Dec. 12.
It will be Joshua’s first fight back in the United Kingdom since September 2018, but his eighth appearance at the venue where, seven years ago as a younger pugilist, he made his professional debut in 2013. The fight will be televised on pay-per-view Sky Sports Box Office in the UK, and on streaming service DAZN in the United States.
“Dec. 12 is the date and once again the heavyweight belts go up in the air and it is my sole focus to make sure that come Dec. 13 they are in their rightful place in the UK,” Joshua said about the bout.
“The O2 is the original lion’s den, I have a lot of history with the arena, but without the fans something huge is missing. I am really hoping that, safety permitting, we might be able to bring some boxing fans in, but we will have to see. I respect every opponent and I respect Pulev. I wish him well during his preparation.”
Joshua knows what he is saying. On Saturday, September 22 2018, a crowd of 80,000 at Wembley Stadium saw Joshua’s last home appearance, when the English heavyweight stopped Alexander Povetkin. That will not be the case this time as no spectators are currently allowed at professional sports events in the UK.
Due to coronavirus restrictions, Joshua’s mandatory defence against Pulev was postponed from happening in front of a 60,000+ crowd at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in June.
The boxer’s Matchroom promoter Englishman Eddie Hearn is pulling strings to get as small a crowd as possible inside the indoor, 18,000-capacity venue when the champion puts the belts on the line again for a first defence in his second reign as champion after a points win over Andy Ruiz Jr on Dec. 7 avenged a stoppage loss to the American earlier in 2019.
Hearn makes clear his thoughts about having in-person fans around the ring, “Whilst it’s unusual to think of an AJ fight without tens of thousands of fans in attendance, we will be doing everything we can to lobby for the safe return of fans to this event, we have to move forward together.
“I know Team Pulev and [US promoter] Bob Arum will be doing all they can to become world champion on Dec. 12 but AJ constantly evolves and improves and I expect a dominant performance and a spectacular KO to close out 2020.”
A Joshua-Pulev fight has been on the cards for a long while. Both professional boxers came face-to-face at a press conference in Cardiff in 2017 to publicise a fight that was scheduled to happen in October that year. However, the Bulgarian pulled out injured two weeks before the bout which was scheduled to be at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. Now, Pulev gets his second shot at the world title after a further delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs), 39, is the mandatory challenger to Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs), 31, and Joshua’s IBF belt after raking up eights wins since a knockout loss to Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko, then WBA-IBF-WBO champion, in 2014. Pulev has gone on to beat Joshua’s fellow Britons Derek Chisora and Hughie Fury since losing to Klitschko.
“This fight is for my late father and all Bulgarians around the world! I’m coming to London to seize the heavyweight championship of the world,” Pulev boasted.
“AJ’s resume is unrivalled, and this is the final hurdle until we challenge for the undisputed crown next year,” Hearn said.
The challenge to which Hearn refers will pit Joshua against either Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder. It is billed to be the biggest fight to be made in boxing today, and could possibly see all four major world title belts on the line to decide an undisputed world champion in the summer of 2021.
It will be the first such bout since Lennox Lewis was recognised as undisputed world heavyweight champion in 1999
But Bob Arum, Top Rank Chairman, who also promotes Fury, provides a stark warning ahead of the December tie: “Eddie Hearn better watch out. Kubrat Pulev is going to destroy his plan for a Joshua-Tyson Fury unification fight.”
THEWILL expects nothing less than a enthralling boxing contest and nonstop excitement from the opening bell.
THEWILL also recalls that Wednesday, 28 October, 2020 makes it three years to the day AJ defended his WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles against Cameroonian professional boxer Carlos Takam with a controversial 10th-round stoppage at a raucous Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Joshua, 28 years old at the time, was fighting with a damaged nose from a heavy head collision early on in the match and did not have things all his own way against a fighter who accepted the bout at just 12 days’ notice. But in a key fourth round in which both men enjoyed success, Joshua had dropped his challenger with a hook and badly damaged Takam’s eye.
In fact, the Cameroonian was twice inspected by ringside medics but valiantly battled on until he was overwhelmed in the 10th, when the referee for the bout Phil Edwards stepped in to end the contest, much to the frustration of the challenger.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
