His Excellency Turki Alalshikh hopes next month’s event, headlined by IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua, will set a record for attendance for a boxing match on September 21st at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The current record is the match between Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte, which attracted a crowd of 94,000 at Wembley Stadium on April 23rd, 2022.
Tickets are still on sale for the Joshua-Dubois fight, but it could be sold out in the true sense by September 21st. British fans are excited about this fight, wanting to see the 34-year-old Joshua resurrect his career to become a three-time heavyweight champion and put himself in a position to fight Tyson Fury after that.
The Return of the Vintage Joshua?
UK fans want to see if Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) can return to the form he had many years ago. That’s the main reason why tickets are selling. AJ has struggled since 2019, losing three times and seemingly on the brink of being washed up after his second loss to Oleksandr Usyk in 2022.
Promoter Eddie Hearn has partially resurrected him with his clever match-making, but we don’t know if he’s back because his opposition has been pure 100% tomato cans in his last four fights. Therefore, the Dubois fight will test whether the old vintage, fully restored 2013 version of Joshua is back.
It may be physically impossible to return Joshua to what he was 11 years ago. He’s taken a lot of punishment to the head, and he’s in his mid-30s now. He’s always been shaky in the chin department and with his stamina. His 2012 Olympic gold medal is questionable, and he would have lost to Wladimir Klitschko in 2017 if he had his old trainer, Emanuel Steward, in his corner. Steward had passed away in 2012.
Fans have differing opinions about the undercard for Joshua vs. Dubois. While British fans are happy about the fights on the undercard, U.S fans see domestic-level British fighters going nowhere in terms of the world stage:
Undercard:
– Tyler Denny vs. Hamzah Sheeraz
– Anthony Cacace vs. Josh Warrington
– Liam Smith vs. Josh Kelly
– Joshua Buatsi vs. Wily Hutchinson
– Mark Chamberlain vs. Josh Padley
Due to high tickets demand..We’ve requested to extend the capacity at Wembley Stadium for the highly anticipated bout between Joshua and Dubois at #RiyadhSeasonCard Wembley Edition 🔥
We hope to set a record for the largest attendance in boxing history at Wembley Stadium😎🇸🇦🥊… pic.twitter.com/dSumJwVv48— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) August 27, 2024
