Nigerian-born two-time world heavyweight boxing champion, Anthony Olaseni Oluwafemi Joshua is looking towards Tottenham Stadium, London for his next title fight, as he aims to make the best of home terrain to consolidate on his return to the belt-holders’ ranks.
Megasportsarena.com gathered that, in the wake of his unanimous points decision victory over Mexico’s Andy Ruiz Jnr on Sunday, thereby regaining the three belts he lost in June, ‘AJ’ was directed to set up a title defence with Ukraine’s Aleksander Usyk within 180 days.
Consequently’ Joshua is already looking towards a London homecoming to start his second reign as world heavyweight champion, with his next fight likely to take place at the recently-built Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Joshua reclaimed his WBA, WBO and IBF titles early Sunday with victory over Ruiz in Saudi Arabia, after first losing to the Mexican-American in New York in June for the first defeat of his career, in his maiden outing in America, and he is now looking homewards for the next fight.
Joshua declared that London is calling for him to arrange his next title defence in the British capital, and his promoter, Eddie Hearn says Spurs’ new 62,062-capacity home is an attractive prospect for the 30-year-old Brit’s next bout in April-May, with Wembley Stadium off the table.
“The phone has gone crazy. It’s like, ‘bring him here, bring him here. They’ve seen what we’ve done here and there’s a lot of options internationally, but he does want to box back in the UK. We spoke to Spurs about hosting this fight (the rematch against Ruiz), which they were keen to do, but unfortunately the dates didn’t work out. They would be keen to do it and it would be a nice stadium to do it in London,” Hearn expatiated.
Having completed his first two overseas bouts, earning a reported £53.3m for fighting in Saudi Arabia, Joshua is returning home for the next outing, and the Watford-born British heavyweight and London 2012 Olympic Games gold medalist believes he “can’t lose” on home soil.
With Deontay Wilder expected to defend his WBC crown against Tyson Fury next in February 2020, Joshua will have to wait to unify the titles and become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world – but that is what he wants.
Joshua told Sky Sports News: “I’m ready. I’ve got my belts back and I’m ready to fight him. But I’m not looking too far into the future because it takes your eyes off what is in front of you.”
