Eddie Hearn discusses the potential venue for the highly-anticipated rematch between Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua.
In a brief interview with DAZN, Hearn spoke about the latest on the rematch for the unified WBA “Super,” WBO and IBF heavyweight titles set to take place later this year. Earlier this week, Hearn announced that he is triggering a rematch clause and that the fight would take place either in November and December.
Although Hearn initially said the rematch will take place in the United Kingdom, he has now said that the venue is still up in the air with a return trip to Madison Square Garden still being a possibility.
While Hearn would prefer to have the rematch in the United Kingdom, where Joshua would be fighting in front of a home crowd, Hearn believes that Joshua wants to potentially return to New York for the rematch right the wrongs he had in the first fight against Ruiz. Now that he knows what Joshua may be thinking, Hearn has no longer ruled out other venues as a possibility to host the rematch, but nothing has been set in stone.
"The venue is going to be interesting, you know? [Joshua], he's a complex character in that I think what he's thinking is, 'Maybe I do MSG. Maybe I'll put all the demons to rest in exactly the same spot where I lost.' For me, it's like, if the fight was in the UK, would he have performed like that? We don't know the answer. There's definitely an edge to fighting in your home country. Ruiz probably performed better [in the United States] than if he performed in London. He didn't have to travel, have different food, different time zones, different commission, different crowd, the things that AJ had [to deal with]. So for me, in terms of having an edge in the fight, the fight should be in the U.K. But there's something about Anthony Joshua in speaking with him that was like, the ultimate challenge would be to do it back at MSG and how impressive would that be to go back to America and do it. I had a funny feeling he would say that. By no means, it's a forgone conclusion. Lots of stuff to explore still and MSG, Vegas, London, Cardiff, I don't know," Hearn said.
Ruiz scored four knockdowns, starting with two in the third round, en route to a seventh-round stoppage to win Joshua’s three titles. The fight headlined a Matchroom Boxing card from Madison Square Garden on June 1 that was streamed on DAZN in the United States. That was Joshua’s first fight in the United States as a pro.
Fightful had a post-show podcast recapping the Joshua vs. Ruiz fight which can be seen in the video below.
