‘I’d love to find an excuse to do it in the UK’: Eddie Hearn refuses to rule out Wembley as a venue for the biggest boxing match in British history… but insists Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury will only fight under the arch in front of a capacity crowd
- Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have finally signed a £200m two-fight contract
- Eddie Hearn has said the first fight will happen this summer, in June or July
- The Matchroom Boxing chief still holds out hope that Wembley can host the bout
Eddie Hearn has once again raised hopes on the prospect of Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury’s world heavyweight unification bout taking place at Wembley.
It was confirmed earlier this month that the pair have finally signed terms on a two-fight deal worth a reported £200m, with the first face-off due to take place in either June or July of this year.
Billed as the biggest fight in British boxing history, the venue for the first event has been a hot topic, with locations such as the Middle East and the United States as possible destinations.
Eddie Hearn has refused to rule out Wembley as a possible venue for Joshua versus Fury
In fact, due to the ongoing pandemic and the lack of clarity on the rules behind fans being allowed back in, the UK was rated at 16/1 by bookies as the setting for fight number one.
However, Hearn has insisted that the national stadium in London remains on the agenda, and would be the venue of choice – should they be allowed to fill it to capacity.
All things being equal, we wouldn’t even be having conversations with anywhere else in the world to be honest with you, we’d just be straight into Wembley,’ he said on talkSPORT.
‘Obviously it is the biggest fight of our generation. It’s the moment of both fighters’ careers.
Tyson Fury (left) is one half of the most eagerly anticipated fights in British boxing history
‘We do have to look at opportunities and with the crowd restrictions it makes it even more difficult to generate the kind of money in the UK that you need.
‘Could we get full capacity after the Euros, sort of middle, end of July? If we could, that does bring London and Wembley into the conversation. I’d love to find an excuse to do it in the UK and to find a way.
‘There’s a lot of discussions to be had, we don’t rule out Wembley, but one thing we do know is the only way we could stage that fight in Wembley is with full capacity.
‘There are some conversations going on with the government to see if that is an option. And, if that is an option, that will be presented to the fighters as well.’
Joshua fought in front of a 1,000 capacity crowd at Wembley Arena last December, but it has been over a year since Tyson Fury last fight, where he defeated Deontay Wilder.
Anthony Joshua currently holds the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO world heavyweight titles
And his promoter Frank Warren has admitted concern over his fighter’s condition.
Speaking to BT Sport, he said: ‘Everybody is working to get it away in June or July, that’s what we’re working towards. That’s what we want to do.
‘The longer it takes to happen, it’s not going to be good for Tyson. You’ve been out the ring now 13 months, coming up to 14 months.
‘So he’ll want to be fighting. And we want to get it on as soon as possible.’