Anthony Joshua may not have a home advantage for his world heavyweight rematch with Oleksandr Usyk this summer.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants the rematch staged back at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium because he feels fighting in London will boost his chances of winning back his belts.
However, Saudi Arabia has made a site offer that could generate twice as much fighting at Spurs’ home and Hearn says Usyk would prefer to go abroad.
Both fighters must agree on the venue for the rematch, which has a 50-50 purse split, and Hearn can understand Usyk’s reluctance to return to London.
He does not want to give Joshua home advantage, even though he dethroned Joshua there in September to become a two-weight world champion.
“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 chief told reporters.
“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 consider that, but AJ just wants to fight.”
Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk said last week that he hopes the venue and date will be confirmed within the next fortnight and Hearn agrees with his timescale.
