Nigeria’s Anthony Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, would have a special reason for taking his heavyweight world champion phenomenon there. And he knows a top-class venue when he sees one.
Hearn’s father, Barry, staged his first boxing promotion at the old White Hart Lane when Frank Bruno beat Joe Bugner in 1987. “I’d love to emulate the old man and put on a fight at the new Spurs ground,” Hearn junior said. Hearn has held two Joshua dates in front of 90,000 at Wembley and two more in front of packed houses at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. The big stadium shows are quite rare but you’re always looking out for places. And Joshua had outgrown the indoor arenas here. Tottenham’s new stadium looks magnificent. Its ultra-modern and state-of-the art. I don’t know what Spurs’ plans are but it could be another option among several in London. With no roof you’d be limited to dates between April and September. But it looks perfect. It’s got to be on the radar for future big boxing events.”
Understandably, Spurs have to get the football underway first – with the opening competitive game against Crystal Palace on Wednesday. Hearn said he has explored the possibility of staging a Joshua fight at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium but it did not come to fruition. He added: “At Wembley you only get one crack a year because it’s so busy there. We planned for a Joshua fight there on April this year didn’t work out. My dad knows the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy very well. So in the future who knows what we could do?AJ’s next date is against Jarrell Miller in New York on June 1. But he wants as many of his big fights as possible over here. One of the stumbling blocks attempting to set up the Wilder fight was that he wouldn’t come to London.”
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