Anthony Joshua will challenge to become boxing’s fifth three-time heavyweight champion when he steps through the ropes for a domestic dust-up with fellow Brit and newly-crowned champion Daniel Dubois. Whilst many are arguing that the card itself is the strongest to ever take place on British soil, there is a more official record that now appears set to be broken when ‘AJ’ and Dubois collide.
Joshua-Dubois is the third all-British heavyweight title contest to take place in the United Kingdom in as many years, following on from Tyson Fury’s WBC title defences against Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora, both of which took place in 2022.
Fury’s questionable trilogy bout with Chisora took place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but his meeting with Whyte was the seventh boxing contest to ever headline at Wembley Stadium.
This broke the record for both the largest attendance of any boxing event at the stadium but also the most attended post-war boxing card in the United Kingdom, as 94,000 fans watched on to see ‘The Gypsy King’ brutally halt his compatriot with a devastating uppercut in round six.
However, Saudi kingpin Turki Al-Alshikh remains intent on leaving his mark on boxing history and has now eyed up those records, revealing that he has requested to add additional floor seats in the hopes of eclipsing the achievements of Fury-Whyte, he declared on social media.
“Due to high ticket demand, we have requested to extend the capacity at Wembley Stadium for the highly anticipated bout between Joshua and Dubois at #RiyadhSeasonCard Wembley Edition. We hope to set a record for the largest attendance in boxing history at Wembley Stadium”
It is entirely possible that this move could see Joshua-Dubois become the first post-war boxing event to break 100,000 spectators in the United Kingdom, although it would still fail to come close to becoming the highest attended card of all-time, even if those seats were to sell out.
The official worldwide record sits with legendary Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez, who knocked out Greg Haugen in Mexico City in front of an astonishing 132,147 onlookers, topping an star-studded undercard that featured two additional title contests and also included Felix Trinidad and Gerald McClellan.
Yet, that record is disputed by the Russians and by Dmitry Chudinov – who claims to have fought in front of between 170,000 – 200,000 fans when he stopped Jorge Navarro in the second-round at the Volgograd open-air motorbike show in 2013, but the figures are not officially confirmed.
Meanwhile, Tony Zale stopped Billy Pryor in round nine of their contest at Juneau Park in Milwaukee in a free-to-attend event due to a sponsorship from the Pabst Brewing Company. 135,000 fans took advantage of this opportunity and were also lucky enough to witness the appearance of fan-favourite former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey.
‘The Manassa Mauler’ acted as referee on that day and surely helped boost the numbers of a record that has stood the test of time and remains as the most attended boxing-card of all-time.
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