Anthony Joshua may be about to break America.
The London 2012 Olympic gold medallist looks set to fight in the United States for the first time, with Las Vegas named the leading candidate to host the lucrative rematch between ‘AJ’ and Wladimir Klitschko.
The thrilling nature of the pair’s initial meeting in April, at Wembley Stadium, resulted in a voracious appetite to see the past and future of boxing’s heavyweight division go toe-to-toe for a second time.
Cardiff had been mentioned as a potential destination for Joshua vs. Klitschko II. So too had Nigeria.
But talks are underway to have the pair clash in the fight capital of the world before the year is out, with Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena expected to host the bout.
Site visit at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas @SkySportsBoxing #MatchroomBoxingUSA 🇬🇧🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/9ujOdKJZBj
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) July 12, 2017
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, paid a visit to the arena, which has a capacity of roughly 20,000, this week and revealed that discussions are ongoing.
“We met with Richard Sturm and the team at MGM in Las Vegas yesterday and had a full tour of the T-Mobile Arena which is very impressive,” Hearn told Sky Sports.
“There is a huge appetite from both sides to hold the rematch there and we will be talking further over the next week or so to see if that can become a reality.”
Joshua stopped Klitschko in the 11th round of their London showdown earlier this year, having been hurt midway through the contest.
#JoshuaKlitchsko Joshua goes down! pic.twitter.com/K6RwrU6mrd
— Haymonites (@ego_biggest) April 29, 2017
A successful request from Joshua’s camp to delay the mandatory defence of his IBF title meant that, if a rematch was to be agreed, it would have to take place before December 2.
Hearn has suggested that they are looking at a potential date in late October/early November.
Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena will host two of the biggest fights this year before then, with Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor (26 August) and Gennady Golovkin vs. ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (16 September) scheduled to go down in that venue.
An MGM Resorts International spokesman told Sky Sports: “I don’t know how close we are, but I can tell you that there are discussions taking place and hopefully it would be a great opportunity to have the chance to host the fight.”
