The much-anticipated Anthony Joshua-Oleksandr Usyk bout will take place on Saturday, September 25th on AJ’s home turf in the United Kingdom, that much we knew. However, the promotion is expected to officially announce the venue tomorrow as sources have revealed to TBV that Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Tottenham, London will host the heavyweight title tilt.
Joshua (24-1, 22KOs) will defend his IBF, WBA, and WBO heavyweight titles against the Ukrainian-born fighter. Usyk (18-0, 13KOs) moved up to heavyweight in 2019 after unifying all four major titles in the Cruiserweight division—he is 2-0 at heavyweight with his biggest win coming against Dereck Chisora. This is one of the biggest fights that can be made in the heavyweight division, rivaled only by potential matchups with Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
AJ-Usyk came together after the very public debacle that was AJ-Fury. Eddie Hearn worked tirelessly for months in an effort to secure the bout that would have produced the undisputed heavyweight champion. The lineal titlist Tyson Fury possesses the only other major belt not owned by AJ in the weight class – the WBC’s “Green Belt.”
However, Fury’s promoter, Bob Arum, overlooked the reality of Wilder, who is 0-1-1 in his two fights against Fury, winning arbitration and forcing a trilogy with Fury—a fight that was originally scheduled for the second half of 2020 before becoming another promotional victim of the pandemic.
Hearn, who nearly brought AJ-Fury to fruition — and did so seemingly on his own and without the help of Arum — quickly changed course following the news of the arbitrator’s decision and set his sights on AJ-Usyk. Now, it appears as though we will get AJ-Usyk two weeks before the rescheduled Fury Wilder trilogy on Oct 9.
Hopefully, the winners of both fights will go on to unify the division. If anyone maintains both the desire and ability to make it happen it is Eddie Hearn.
