The venue for the mandatory title defence between unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 23-1 (21) and Kubrat Pulev 28-1 (14) should be finalised within the next four weeks.
According to the 39-year-old Bulgarian challenger’s manager Ivaylo Gotsev, the fight could land in either the UK, Croatia or the Middle East.
WBA, IBF and WBO champion Joshua was scheduled to face Pulev at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 20 but has been postponed due to the global coronavirus pandemic while promoter Eddie Hearn explores other options for a venue.
Gotsev is confident a decision will be made in the very near future.
“We’ve given ourselves four weeks to explore any and all opportunities that are there for the fight,” Gotsev told Sky Sports.
“Eddie has spoken to you about the Middle East, which is a great possibility. It makes sense, because those countries were not as hard affected and if you take the right precautions, we could really have a safe environment.
“That’s something I want to emphasise, and I can’t say it enough times – safety first. We don’t want to take a risk against anyone’s health, no way no how.
“Whatever makes most sense, wherever we can have the best conditions under the current terms we’re living in, that’s where we’re going to go in. There you have it, we have about three more weeks left on the exploring and then we’ll see where the best options lie.”
One option is the 5,000-seat Pula Arena in Pula, Croatia.
“Eddie is well aware of it – our team is aware of it,” Gotsev continued. “We’re discussing it as a possibility.
“Why Croatia? Well, first of all, when you look at the map of Europe, it’s right there in the centre of the map, and it makes sense for our continent to host the event, and also the venue itself is very inviting, because it’s an open air venue.
“You could take the proper precautions and the proper measurements to look after people’s safety first. This is not, just go out there and have a fight. No, we’ve got to protect the people that are involved with the fight.
“From participants to the timekeepers, to the judges. All the stuff that’s involved in production of such a big event, we’re looking after their health, so we could take proper precautions there and protect everyone.
“Croatia is one of the countries that was not hit very hard, as we know, and also with proper measurements, that could be the case where we’re not exposing everybody. An open-air stadium where you could spread out the crowd a little bit makes perfect sense.”
Hearn is still pushing for the fight to take place in the UK in front of Joshua’s home fans after regaining the three world championship belts with a revenge win over conqueror Andy Ruiz Jr in Saudi Arabia last December.
“At the moment our preference is to stage the event in the UK, but we will keep our options open in terms of alternative venues, if UK is not an option,” Hearn told Sky Sports.
Fighting Joshua, 30, on home turf doesn’t bother Pulev.
“We were willing and we actually agreed to come to the UK, so that’s never been a question of neutral ground,” Gotsev said.
“It was Joshua’s demand, ‘I want to go back home.’ Okay Joshua, you’re the champ, we respect that, we’re coming to the UK. Kubrat is coming there to kick your ass, in front of your crowd. No problem.
“They are fighters, it’s one against the other. At the end of the day, the public can jump, scream and shout, but it’s mano-e-mano in the ring, we’ve worked out that.
“To us, it didn’t matter that the fight is taking place in the UK.”
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