Hearn: Joshua, Pulev fight could rake $10 Million gate takings

Eddie Hearn is counting on Anthony Joshua defending his IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles against Kubrat Pulev from September to November. He’s hoping that a vaccine will be created by then, but he’s already planning on thing the Joshua vs. Pulev fight outside of the UK.

It’s impossible for Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) to fight behind closed doors because of the gate, which he estimates could be over $10 million for his title defense against Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs).

“Before all of this, we were so red hot,” said Hearn to S.I. Podcast about the pandemic and the fights that were taking place before it hit. “We were talking to Kazakhstan; we were talking to China, we were speaking to Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

“All these territories. We want to stage a major fight. I can’t tell you right now that my phone is ringing from countries, saying, ‘We want to stage a major fight.’ There will be, and they want to show that they’re up and running as a destination. But right now, people have bigger problems. We have to substitute that big gate for the mega-fights somehow.

“Canelo against Billy Joe is a problem,” said Hearn. “That’s a fight that can do an $8 million gate. How is that subsidized? [Anthony] Joshua against [Kubrat] Pulev. That could be a $10 million gate. We can’t just do it behind closed doors. Where does the $10 million go? So we have to look internationally, and we have to be creative.

“Some territories like Australia and New Zealand, they’re basically reporting zero cases. So some countries are going to rebound quicker. So we’ve got to be creative in ways to substitute a gate if we can’t happen in territories that we’d ideally like it to,” said Hearn.

Recently, Joshua said that he was willing to defend his titles behind closed doors, but that’s not something that Hearn is interested in. Hearn is fine with some of his other fighters in his Matchroom stable fighting without an audience, but not his big-ticket guy Joshua.

read also: Pulev Vows to beat ‘Coward’ Joshua silly

“That kind of segues into a question about Anthony Joshua,” said Chris Mannix. “I mean, the [Kubrat] Pulev fight that is tentatively scheduled for the summertime. Is that something that just can’t exist in the U.K. based on what we know right now on the lockdown rules and the future of the sport. Have you actively explored other possibilities?”