Anthony Joshua wants to give up home advantage and rerun his Andy Ruiz Jr horror show back in America.
The Nigerian ace, 29, lost his WBA, IBF and WBO belts to the 19st Mexican outsider at Madison Square Garden on June 1 in a seismic shock. The heavyweight exercised the rematch clause almost immediately and scoffed at the idea of a warm-up fight to rebuild his shattered confidence.
But he is not interested in having the second instalment back on familiar ground as he wants to clear his name at the scene of the crime.
Promoter Eddie Hearn, who expects a deal to be made in the next 48 hours, said: “A sensible man would say: ‘Do it in the UK’. But Anthony feels it would be special to rewrite history with a win back at Madison Square Garden. The deal is not really about the money, it is about where the fight should take place. AJ will make the decision, wherever he wants it is where it will be. He will be the one who calls the final shot once we give him all the possible dates and venues. My advice would probably be: ‘Do it in the UK’ because he has a bigger advantage there but he feels it would be more impressive and historic to do it back there. We are speaking to Cardiff, Wembley and Tottenham but his preference is MSG. Over the next week we will finalise the rematch somewhere between November 16 and December 14.”
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