Eddie Hearn says a venue for Oleksandr Usyk’s rematch with Anthony Joshua will be announced within the next two weeks, with “final negotiations” with different sites still taking place.
Saudi Arabia is understood to be the frontrunner to stage the fight for the WBA, WBO, IBO and IBF heavyweight titles, despite the outrage that greeted the news that it was being considered as a possible venue.
It has been reported that July 23 is now the target date for the fight, although Hearn said that it could still be earlier.
“We are in final negotiations with a couple of sites for either the end of June or early-mid July,” Hearn said. “I reckon within two weeks we will have news on where it will be.
“There is still a UK option but we don’t really need proper negotiations for the UK, we can just book it.”
That seemed to hint that the UK would be unlikely. Usyk won the titles from Joshua at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London in September and it was expected that the contracted rematch would be there or at Wembley Stadium.
But the chance of a huge site fee looks set to take it abroad. Hearn has said that Saudi Arabia, where Joshua won his rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, is only one bid, with other Middle East states and venues in the United States also interested.
There is also no certainty about who the broadcaster will be, with Hearn admitting that the venue might have a say in the broadcast rights.
Every one of Joshua’s professional fights has been broadcast on Sky in the UK, although their contract with Joshua ended with the first Usyk fight, having split with Hearn’s Matchroom group last summer when Hearn took his stable to DAZN, a deal that does not include Joshua.
“DAZN are definitely in the mix, it depends on the deal because some vary in terms of the rights,” Hearn said.
“You could do a deal where the site could control certain rights on the fight.
“We have had a great relationship between Sky and AJ and those negotiations continue at the moment.
“DAZN could obviously love to procure Anthony Joshua to the platform, as would other broadcasters as well.
“It is just a case of confirming the AJ vs Usyk deal first and then securing the broadcaster to follow.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 – covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.