Industry News

Twickenham a possibility for Joshua’s next fight

Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed that world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s next fight could take place at London’s Twickenham Stadium amid scheduling problems at Wembley Stadium.

Joshua picked up his 20th win from 20 professional fights when defeating Carlos Takam of France at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium last month.

That fight came after the Brit defeated Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000 people at Wembley back in April.

Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, had been keen on a return to Wembley for Joshua’s next fight but the 82,000-capacity Twickenham, home of the English rugby union team, is now being lined up as an alternative.

“Wembley is quite difficult this year,” Hearn said, according to UK newspaper the Daily Mail. “We have already been in contact with them and the options aren’t great. We basically want the biggest possible stadium and if Wembley is not available the next best would be Twickenham.”

Deontay Wilder and Joseph Parker have been proposed as possible next opponents for Joshua. Hearn has suggested Joshua fight Parker first before facing off against Wilder later in the year.

Hearn said: “Summer makes more sense because it’s a huge stadium fight, we can generate more money and both fighters will be bigger by then because both would have had another fight.

“We need to give (Wilder) respect for holding a world title but one guy is selling 5,000 tickets in Brooklyn, the other is selling 70,000 tickets in Britain and we are making seven or eight times as much money per fight.”

Image: Diliff