Heavyweight title contender Kubrat Pulev is coming to Top Rank as he continues to march towards another opportunity at championship gold.
The once-beaten Pulev, primarily promoted by Epic Sports' John Wirt and Ivaylo Gotzev, has signed a multi-year deal with Top Rank to co-promote the Bulgarian heavyweight. Pulev now joins a stable of heavyweight fighters including former world title challengers Andy Ruiz Jr. and Bryant Jennings.
Pulev was supposed to get a shot at Anthony Joshua's WBA and IBF heavyweight titles in 2017 as the two were scheduled to headline a boxing card in Cardiff, Wales. Unfortunately for Pulev, he suffered an injury weeks before the fight would take place and withdrew from the fight. In Pulev's place was Carlos Takam, who would go on to get stopped by Joshua in the 10th round of their fight.
Since then, Pulev has battled back to get in position to challenge for a world title. Pulev would go on to defeat Hughie Fury on October 27 in Bulgaria to once again become the mandatory challenger to Joshua's IBF title. Joshua is currently scheduled to defend his unified WBA, WBO and IBF titles in April 2019 on a Matchroom Boxing show at Wembley Stadium.
The plan for Pulev is to have him fight a main event fight on an ESPN platform within the first three months of 2019 before moving forward and attempting to get the fight against Joshua. Pulev is currently on a six-fight win streak since unsuccessfully challenging for Wladimir Klitschko's IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles in 2014.
