After promoting four successful Fight Camp events this summer in the grounds of Matchroom headquarters, Eddie Hearn has outlined his plans for the remainder of the year in the UK as boxing edges closer to normality after the chaos caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The most significant fight sees the return of unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua who is currently scheduled to face IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev at the O2 Arena on December 12 – with the hope that fans are in attendance following a succession of behind-closed-doors events.
“We’re still looking at alternative options with team Pulev, but we are focusing on that date and we hope to finalise everything in the next week,” Hearn told Steve Kim of ESPN.com.
“Anthony Joshua will fight this year regardless. We have applied, ourselves, for a test event with the UK government with Joshua Buatsi at the end of September. The government has already stated that from the beginning of October live crowds will be able to return to sporting events.
“We don’t know what the world is going to give us in the next couple of months, but if things keep moving like they’re moving, we’ll definitely be allowed fans in the O2 Arena. It’s just a case of how many.”
The test event featuring rising light-heavyweight star Buatsi (12-0, 10 KOs) will take place on the final weekend of September, with the aim to have 2,000 to 3,000 fans in attendance.
“The hope is that that [Buatsi] could be the first fight where we’ll see fans back in the UK,” said Hearn. “We’re still in discussion to try to have [Oleksandr Usyk vs Dereck Chisora] happen on October 31, but we’ve really got to make a decision by next week. Chisora and Usyk want to do that fight now. They don’t want to wait until February to bring crowds back.
“But the previous offer was based on a $3 million gate, which no longer exists. So, it doesn’t really work, unless everyone wants to try and get creative. So that’s what we’re trying to do at the moment.”
In the final punch of Fight Camp two weeks ago, Alexander Povetkin knocked out Dillian Whyte with a sweetly-timed left uppercut, but a rematch has already been pencilled in between the heavyweight contenders.
“That looks like it’s going to be November 14 or 21 in London — it will definitely be one of those dates,” added Hearn.