With the recent news of Eddie Hearn going ‘full steam ahead’ organising the Joshua-Klitschko rematch, possible venues are being discussed.
There are strong rumours for an October date and a U.K venue. The frontrunner at the moment is The Principality Stadium in Cardiff which recently hosted the 2017 Champions League Final. The stadium is known for its massive capacity and retractable roof but there are still other venues looking to host the rematch.
“We’re looking at America, Nigeria, Dubai or Cardiff,” revealed Promoter Eddie Hearn in an interview with boxingnewsonline.com.
While the Principality Stadium might be the biggest, it is still not financially the most lucrative according to Hearn. Apparently other places, like Lagos in Nigeria, are diving deep into their own pockets to get this fight. But the promoter also brings up some issues that arise when going to a new market.
“Cardiff isn’t the frontrunner financially. The money we’re getting offered from other sites is huge, but that comes with problems. It’s a new market for us, go and do an event in Lagos sounds great but operationally it’s very difficult. You have to look at money, is it there? Is it secure?”
However, Hearn might not follow the money after all since it is a safe bet that organising the fight in Cardiff would provide the least amount of hassle.
“Financially there’s much better offers than Cardiff but we know the UK is solid, we’ve prepared here before, it’s the same time zone, so we don’t really want to rock the boat,” summarised the promoter.