Unified heavyweight world titlist Anthony Joshua is set to face mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev on June 20 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, both fighters have confirmed.
Joshua’s three major world title belts will be on the line at the north London stadium, which opened in 2019 and seats more than 60,000.
“I am happy that I will be able to show the world how strong I really am,” Pulev said on social media.
June 20th 🗓 pic.twitter.com/4FbiftE8Cl
— Anthony Joshua (@anthonyfjoshua) March 2, 2020
Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs), 30, of England, lost the WBA, IBF and WBO world title belts in a seventh-round knockout defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr. on June 1 in New York in his U.S. debut. Joshua regained them on Dec. 7 by unanimous decision in a rematch with Ruiz in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Soon after the rematch, Joshua was ordered to make his mandatory defenses.
Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs), 38, of Bulgaria, has won eight fights in a row since challenging then-unified heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko in November 2014, a bout in which he was knocked out in the fifth round.
The pair were due to meet in October 2017 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales but the Bulgarian pulled out after with a shoulder injury he sustained in sparring. Joshua fought Carlos Takam instead,stopping him in the 10th round.