Anthony Joshua At Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Promoting Usyk Fight

Just a month away from the fight week of Unified Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s return to the ring, the champ recently took time to take some photos/help publicize the upcoming PPV.

Joshua readies to make the first defense this year of his WBA/IBF/WBO World titles against former Undisputed Cruiserweight World champ, Oleksandr Usyk on September 25th. And, he looked quite comfortable in the newly renovated, state of the art, Tottenham Hotspur “football” (soccer) stadium just north of London. Observe,

📸 This is going to be pretty 𝗕𝗜𝗚 👀

📍 @SpursOfficial #JoshuaUsyk pic.twitter.com/w6day5bHc2

— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) August 23, 2021

As you can see, Joshua was part of promotional photos and video being shot to help publicize the bout. This included being in and around the ‘Spurs dressing room leading out to their “pitch” (field), where the boxing ring will be put.

Joshua, 24-1, was originally going to fight his IBF mandatory Kutbrat Pulev in that same stadium last July. However, the Covid 19 pandemic shut down the sport and scuttled all plans with fans, especially in the U.K. Joshua eventually fought and kayoed Pulev in December at the Wembley Arena in front of limited fans.

Joshua has repeatedly defended his titles at legendary Wembley Stadium in front of sold out crowds in excess of 80,000. This would be the first massively attended fight in the U.K. since the Covid 19 pandemic began last March.

As for Usyk, he’s 18-0 was last in action in the same Wembley Arena with no fans last October decisioning Dereck Chisora. That was the unbeaten Ukranian’s second bout at Heavyweight. The former Olympic Gold Medalist (like Joshua) and Undisputed Cruiserweight champ and his team had been waiting for weeks for Hearn to finalize a deal for his challenge to Joshua’s titles.

The WBO had threatened Joshua with potentially stripping him of their world title, if he did not fight Usyk, who’s been their mandatory for over 18 months, at some point in the near future.

Earlier this month, Matchroom announced that Joshua-Usyk had sold out the 65,000 seat stadium in only a couple of days. They said at that time,

“AJ has sold-out stadiums and arenas around the world and now the Heavyweight division’s biggest attraction returns to the Capital for his fifth stadium fight at the sensational, state of the art home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Over 100,000 fans waited in the StubHub ticket queue for their chance to land seats for the biggest Heavyweight clash of the year starring two London 2012 Olympic gold medallists going head-to-head in their quests for Undisputed supremacy.”

🎟️ #JoshuaUsyk sells out within 24 hours 🔥@SpursOfficial 👊

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— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) August 4, 2021

Of course, there’s one more aspect to the “Ticket Drama” from the pre-sale Monday. And, that’s whether the recent spikes worldwide in the Covid 19 infections due to the “Delta Variant” could restrict how many fans get to potentially attend the bout almost two months from now?

That’s an unknown.

The hope is that Joshua, one of the most prominent fighters in Europe, will get to do more than a photo shoot in that stadium.