Joshua vs Pulev may yet move overseas – Hearn

Eddie Hearn has admitted that Anthony Joshua vs Kubrat Pulev could yet be moved overseas in a bid to stage the bout in front of a crowd.

The Matchroom promoter has re-iterated that the bout will go ahead on Saturday December 12, whether spectators are allowed to attend or not.

But having previously said London was likely to host the bout amid hopes crowds would be back in UK arenas by then, he has now revealed there is still a chance it could take place outside the UK.

He told IFL TV: “If I can’t get a crowd, I may well try to take it somewhere where I can get a crowd,” and when asked if that meant overseas, he added “possibly”.

Hearn says his motivation for looking at all avenues is the desire as a promoter to drive up revenues for the fighters involved. The one certain thing he says, is that the bout will happen with Joshua having not fought since his rematch win over Andy Ruiz Jr in December 2019.

“It’s going ahead. We will work with Bob (Arum) and Ivaylo (Gotzev), who are the promotional partners for Pulev, to maximise the revenue,” he said.

“If there’s a big opportunity to take this fight elsewhere we will look at it, but what I’m saying to you is this fight goes ahead, with or without fans.”

Hearn says elite fighters like Joshua, and current P4P king ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, deserve high praise for being willing to fight behind closed doors. He believes it says much for their desire to continuing building their legacies.

He said: “These guys want to fight, they want to progress their career, they want to stay active. They’ve gotta do what they’ve gotta do. If that means fighting with no crowd they will do it, but my job is to maximise the revenue of the fight for both fighters.

“If that means there is an opportunity to drive revenue via a site fee or crowds I will look at that as well.  But we’re not out here selling apples, this isn’t like just punting things out. This is the most prestigious fighter in world boxing in Anthony Joshua.

“So the opportunity’s gotta be right, the deal’s gotta be right. if not no problem, we know the world we’re in, we’ll handle business behind a crowd and we’ll move on.”