Promoter Eddie Hearn envisions fans in the seats as early as September. And he has plans in place to welcome them, although on a small scale.
Hearn told BoxingScene.com that he wants to stage heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s title defense against Kubrat Pulev in front of about 1,000 high-rollers at either Royal Albert Hall or Olympia in London.
Both venues, which can hold many more than 1,000 spectators, have hosted boxing events in the past.
“I definitely see crowds coming back as early as September,” Hearn said. “I really want to do the fight in the U.K. So I am thinking AJ boxes in October or November. Why can’t we go to the Royal Albert Hall or Olympia and do 1,000 people, a proper glitz and glamour event, charge people a lot of money to go, dinner before, a party, drinks and everyone is a couple of meters apart from everyone?”
The Joshua-Pulev fight was originally scheduled to take place at the new 60,000-plus-capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 20 but it was postponed because of the coronavirus threat.
Thus, Hearn was faced with forgoing a lucrative live gate if he wanted the fight to take place this year. The small-venue idea would generate some revenue.
“If you are doing 1,000 tickets, there is a dinner before and an after-party, it is a hell of a ticket if you are a fight fan to go and watch something like that so close up,” Hearn told the website. “We just have to be creative; people will want to go out. It will take time for people to rediscover the confidence to go to event with crowds.
“I know there is a chance there could be a second spike, but if they start opening up restaurants in July and outdoor pubs, it will be very difficult to not allow gatherings of 100, 200, 500 or 1,000.”
There had been talk of staging the fight overseas but, Hearn said, that would be a gamble at this point. He added that he received no firm offer to hold the fight at a Roman amphitheater in Croatia, as reported.
“I think if Saudi [Arabia] are going to look for a return of boxing, it will be more like the back end of the year, November or December,” Hearn said. “I don’t think anyone has any confidence right now to be booking things up and spending money.
“You see [promoter Bob] Arum talking about the Far East and Australia. There are definitely going to be countries that are wanting to establish themselves as open for business.
“So, staging a big fight and maybe a big heavyweight fight might be appealing to them. That goes for Oleksandr Usyk-Dereck Chisora and AJ-Pulev.”
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