A Date Is Set, But Not All Good News

Boxing fans have been sitting on the fence for quite some time waiting for news around any big bouts set to get underway again – perhaps the biggest on the minds of many had been the heavyweight title fight between Joshua and Pulev which had initially been set to take place in June but found delays due to the coronavirus – fortunately there’s some good news as it seems the fight is getting back on track.

It has now been announced that Anthony Joshua is expected to defend his three world heavyweight titles against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev in the first week of December – but it isn’t all good news as promoter Eddie Hearn has also said that it’s looking more and more likely that this will happen behind closed doors as the likelihood of having fans in attendance is looking bleak – this is contrast to earlier statements made by the promoter as far back as in May he had made suggestions that up to 5,000 fans may be able to attend. There are still hopes that the event will be held at the O2 Arena in London however, as other early suggestions would be there the event may be required to take place in a different part of Europe as Croatia had seemingly been topping the list.

There has also been other talk of who may be the next challenger too, although many had hoped there would be a big money fight with Joshua and Fury, it’s looking more likely that the next fight will be against the current challenger in Oleksandr Usyk if he is to win against Pulev, it does serve as a great build up however as the fight between Fury and Joshua could be the biggest fight in British boxing history. There are also other fights to be considered here too as many expect Fury to go for the rubber match against Wilder before taking any other fight which will be another exciting bout in itself after the controversial first fight and the very dominant second performance too – either way there are certainly some big fights lined up to come in 2021 despite the current delays faced this year.

This is also a great time for punters to get excited too, after a few months of postponements and cancellations to many sports including boxing it seems like combat sports are very much on the way back as we’ve already seen in MMA. There has been a number of changes to consider too as a recent ban in online credit card betting and the further authority granted to initiatives such as Gamstop have made it difficult for a number of services to operate as they had, but there are now also many betting sites not on gamstop that will be primed for the return of boxing – changes could lead to a more interesting fight too as we’ve seen elsewhere, the lack of fans in attendance leads to a very different dynamic in the ring and may cause potential for yet another upset.