Anthony Joshua’s unified world heavyweight title defence against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev scheduled to take place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday June 20 has been postponed.
Joshua was set to return to British shores after reclaiming the WBA, IBF WBO and IBO world titles from Andy Ruiz Jr with a unanimous decision victory in a historic rematch in Saudi Arabia in December.
However, with the ongoing Coronavirus crisis, which has put a halt to all boxing events in the UK until the end of May in line with regulations set by the British Boxing Board of Control, the 30-year-old will now defend his belts on a new date to be decided.
Matchroom Boxing confirmed on Monday that Dillian Whyte’s clash with Alexander Povertkin set for May 2nd at the Manchester Arena has been rescheduled to July 4th, whilst Derek Chisora’s battle with Oleksandr Usyk on May 23rd is also postponed with a new date being worked on.
A statement from Matchroom Boxing read:
“A new date for the event promoted by Matchroom Boxing and 258 Management in association with Top Rank and Epic Sports Entertainment is currently being worked on.
🗣️ @EddieHearn with more on the #JoshuaPulev postponement pic.twitter.com/tWqP0KkH3K
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) April 3, 2020
“We will announce any updates in due course and continue to explore the possibility of hosting this fight at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.”
Promoter Eddie Hearn announced last Saturday that 200 tickets would be made available to NHS workers fighting COVID-19 to all Saturday fight nights and pay-per-view cards for 12 months, upon the resumption.
