Unified Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev are close to finalizing a deal that would pit them against each other in June, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
Assuming the deal is signed, promoter Eddie Hearn said the fight will take place June 20 at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which opened in 2019 and seats more than 60,000.
“The terms are agreed and we’re papering the deal as we talk,” Hearn told ESPN in Frisco, where he is promoting the Mikey Garcia-Jessie Vargas welterweight fight on Saturday night.
“It’s just been stuff like tickets, officials — because we’ve got to make sure they want neutral officials and we’d have to speak to the [British Board of Boxing Control] about that, and it could take two or three days,” Hearn said. “But everything has been really smooth. It’s really, really minor details. We’re re-drafting and re-drafting and re-drafting [the contract], and every time there’s a re-draft two of the problems disappear. So it’s travel, officials, press conferences, [does Top Rank] get a slot on the undercard. It’s so minor now, it’s just making sure there are no arguments when we get it done.”
Although it is a mandatory fight, Hearn said there is “likely to be a rematch clause because it’s just how it is with AJ fights. It’s the same conversation I had with [Top Rank chairman Bob] Arum when we did [Vasiliy] Lomachenko-Luke Campbell and Lomachenko-Anthony Crolla [last year]. They were both mandatories but both had rematch clauses. If [Pulev] said no rematch clause then we wouldn’t take the fight and they’d lose the biggest payday of their career. They’d fight Charles Martin for [a vacant title] for $500,000. So the fight is nearly done. I just saw another draft. The discussion points are down to silly things.”
