Venue for Anthony Joshua vs Kubrat Pulev to be finalized in coming weeks

As unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua gets ready to make his IBF mandatory title defense against Kubrat Pulev once the world opens back up, both sides continue to work on settling on a venue to hold the bout which was originally slated for June 20 in the UK before the pandemic hit.

A few days ago Pulev’s team expressed their interest in a particular venue in Croatia, and Joshua still seems intent on holding the fight at home — although that might be of less importance now that fans most likely won’t be allowed to attend live. Even still, Pulev’s manager Ivaylo Gotsev tells Sky Sports that they’re readily exploring all potential landing spots for the fight.

“We’ve given ourselves four weeks to explore any and all opportunities that are there for the fight. Eddie has spoken to you about the Middle East, which is a great possibility. It makes sense, because those countries were not as hard affected and if you take the right precautions, we could really have a safe environment. ... Whatever makes most sense, wherever we can have the best conditions under the current terms we’re living in, that’s where we’re going to go in.”

Gostev continues by mentioning that Croatia is of particular interest not only because of the unique venue, which is open-air, but also because the country was not hit very hard by coronavirus, therefore believing they can mitigate potential risks. But as things currently stand we should be getting firmer word on where and when this rescheduled fight will take place in the near future. We’ll keep you posted...