By Tim Parsons
Anthony Joshua and Kubrat Pulev are set for big pay day, after £70,000 tickets were sold for their big fight at Cardiff’s principality stadium. The event is to be showed live on Sky sports box office is the fastest selling show ever to be held at the principality stadium in Cardiff.
Pulev’s has lost just once in 26 fights to Wladimir kalitschko on points. That was in 2014, and after beating top world contenders like Tony Thompson and Dimitrinko. Pulev who has waited his turn for a long time now is a solid heavyweight who is strong and experienced enough to give Joshua some problems if he is hungry enough for the title. At 6 ft 5 inches, he is only one and a half inches shorter than Anthony Joshua, but his strength and wider experience provide an adequate mix to expect goood heavyweight tussle. The fact Pulev has never been stopped means his confidence will be sky high.
Joshua will be favourite to win the fight but after barely surviving before taking Wladimir Klitsxhko out in the eleventh round last September. Joshua is beatable, but has shown the tough spirit to stick in there and deliver the finishing blow before he is beaten . Klitschko could have stopped the new IBF and WBA heavyweight champion if he had jumped on Joshua when he had him down in the fifth round of their heavyweight clash.
Pulev will take some encouragement from that fight and will be planning to stage a big upset in Cardiff after many of his fans have snapped up tickets for the big fight. Pulev was meant to fight Joshua before his first fight with Wladimir Klitschko, and immediately after in the planned but aborted rematch. The event promising to be spectacular, despite Pulev not expected to be a raw comapred with Joshua. Pulev is believed to have been paid step aside money to allow Joshua to originally skip his mandatory IBF obligation to face him. That fight is finally in the making and Pulev will be motivated to grab both the IBF and WBA belts at once. Joshu won’t hand it to him on a plate, and for the Londoner to stop a man not even Klitschko could drop a stop, will continue Joshua’s reputation as potential dominant champion of his era.