KUBRAT PULEV told Anthony Joshua he is happy to face the unified champion in Britain – but insisted a deal is not yet complete. Joshua, 30, regained his unified belts in Saudi Arabia in December after he exacted revenge on Andy Ruiz Jr but was immediately mandated by the IBF to face Pulev. The Watford […]
KUBRAT PULEV told Anthony Joshua he is happy to face the unified champion in Britain – but insisted a deal is not yet complete.
Joshua, 30, regained his unified belts in Saudi Arabia in December after he exacted revenge on Andy Ruiz Jr but was immediately mandated by the IBF to face Pulev.
The Watford star wants a UK homecoming in his next fight, having boxed on the road in his last two bouts, where he suffered a nightmare US debut against underdog Ruiz before the Riyadh rematch.
And despite promoter Eddie Hearn revealing North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham are both in the mix to host AJ’s next title defence, Pulev is adamant a deal has not been agreed.
Pulev wrote on his website: “I see that you are very worried to fight away from home and you are absolutely right to be, haha!
“But rest assured, if necessary I’m ready to come to London and bust you up in front of your own fans!
“Until then, tell Mr. Hearn not to get ahead of himself, we do not have a deal yet!”
Joshua was scheduled to fight Pulev in 2017 but the Bulgarian pulled out with injury, as AJ went on to instead knock out Carlos Takam.
Despite the fight being three years in the making, heavyweight rival Tyson Fury – who rematches Deontay Wilder on February 22 – slammed the showdown as boring.
Fury told Sirius XM: “To be honest with you, Pulev and Joshua are a pair of p*****s, both of them.
“It’s not a fight that’s really interesting to me, Pulev and Joshua.
“I only want to see the big fights and unfortunately for Pulev he’s not part of the scene unless he gatecrashes the party.
“The fights I want to see is me versus Wilder, me versus Joshua and Joshua versus Wilder.
“That’s it, there’s no other players, the rest of the players are just people trying to gatecrash the heavyweight division.”
