Joshua may lose ‘big advantage’ as Usyk proposes venue outside UK

Oleksandr Usyk defeated Anthony Joshua in their first heavyweight title fight… last year

Anthony Joshua is set to fight Oleksandr Usyk in their highly-anticipated rematch this summer – but the contest may not go down in the United Kingdom as promoter Eddie Hearn had hoped, reports express.co.uk.

Last September, AJ lost his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles to the Ukrainian, who comfortably outclassed the former champion to win via decision.

The Brit’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants the rematch to go ahead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – where their September bout was fought – as he believes a home crowd in London could inspire Joshua to victory. However, complications appear to have risen.

Saudi Arabia have reportedly made a site offer which could potentially generate twice as much revenue as staging the bout in north London. On top of that, Hearn revealed Usyk would prefer to fight on an international stage.

“If contracts and site fees that have been offered come to fruition, it would make going to the UK very difficult for us to get Usyk to do, quite frankly,” the Matchroom Boxing boss told Mirror Sport. “We can see it from their point of view, ‘why would I bother going back to England for half the money?’

“We can’t take a site that pays significantly less to Usyk. We want to go to London, it would be a big advantage for AJ to take this fight back to London, but if a site fee generates double the money, there’s no way Usyk will allow us to go to London. So we do have to take that into consideration, but AJ is ready to fight wherever the fight takes place.

“We’ve had a number of offers and dates. We’re going through the contracts at the moment and we’ll see where it will be, but I think two weeks to sort