Prepare for a late one on November 11.
For the first time, Anthony Joshua is set to fight in the United States and, unfortunately for British fans, that likely means staying up until the wee hours of the morning to see him in action.
Joshua is set to clash with Wladimir Klitschko for the second time this year and the most anticipated heavyweight rematch in decades is close to a done deal, according to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn.
After toying with the possibility of having Cardiff’s Principality Stadium host the fight, it was decided to travel to the fight capital of the world to properly introduce ‘AJ’ to the American market.
Talks are ongoing with the T-Mobile Arena, which has a capacity of roughly 20,000, and the final details are being put together to have the London 2012 Olympic gold medallist attempt to go 2-0 against the Ukrainian legend this November.
“I’ve been in Vegas with AJ, officially applying for my Nevada boxing license to promote there and that went well,” Hearn told Sky Sports.
“I met with the MGM and met with the T-Mobile Arena, Vegas is the front runner and November 11 is the date that is pencilled in.
Not even a hint of fence-sitting https://t.co/sx9TfX9bkA
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) July 21, 2017
“It will probably take a couple of weeks to get everything over the line, but I believe Klitschko will take this fight and believe Vegas will be the one.
“AJ has been over there for about 10 days and has enjoyed himself and got to know the area a little bit.
“The amount of British fight fans that would travel there, it will be a momentous occasion and one that we will savour for a long time so fingers crossed it’s a party in Las Vegas on November 11.”
All of Joshua’s 19 professional fights have taken place on British soil, which meant that they were broadcast at a reasonable hour for fight fans in the UK, but we can expect a 5am BST ring walk come November 11 (the morning of November 12).
Wladimir Klitschko's black eye took quite some time to go away after Anthony Joshua war https://t.co/cdyQc0zhYm
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) June 2, 2017
Joshua has reached that phase of his career where Vegas is crying out for him and his team must now cater to the lucrative US pay-per-view market.
“It’s no secret we’ve been salivating about getting him over here and certainly that would be a phenomenal fight,” Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza recently told Sky Sports.
“It would be the biggest heavyweight Vegas fight in probably a couple of decades, so we would love to host it.
“That’s a massive mega-fight wherever it is. The first fight was a star-making performance and for many here in the US, it was their introduction to Anthony Joshua.”
