Joshua vs Fury at ‘shock’ site in Saudi

British rivals Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will fight their world heavyweight unification title fight in Saudi Arabia on August 14 in a specially built stadium, promoter Eddie Hearn said on Thursday.

Hearn, who is Joshua ’ s promoter, did not provide details of the location.

“They want to build a new stadium,” he told Sky Sports television. “They have indoors options. In August at 11pm it will be about 23°C.

“They want to create something very, very special. Last time they built a stadium for the Andy Ruiz Jr fight in just seven weeks and it held 18,000.

“They have the opportunity to hold it indoors but they want to create something that will shock the world. They want to build a stadium just for this fight.”

Joshua fought Mexican American Andy Ruiz Jr in Diriyah, on the outskirts of the Saudi capital Riyadh, in December 2019 and won back the belts he had lost in an earlier shock defeat.

The 31-year-old holds the IBF, WBO, WBA and IBO titles while Fury, 32, is the WBC belt holder.

Fury has not fought for more than a year since his knockout win against American Deontay Wilder while Joshua’s last ring appearance was against Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev in December.