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Nick Parkinson
Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua’s IBF world heavyweight title fight at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday is set to break the post-war record for a crowd at a boxing event in the United Kingdom after organisers confirmed 96,000 tickets have been sold.
Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, posted on X on Thursday to say there were no longer tickets available.
“It’s the record; it’s 96,000, I think, at a time that British boxing needs a shot in the arm,” Eddie Hearn added at a news conference. “We’re all very proud of the way he [Joshua] has carried himself since the Olympic gold medal.”
The figure beats the previous high of 94,000, set when former WBC champion Tyson Fury defended his belt with a stoppage win over Dillian Whyte, also at Wembley Stadium, in April 2022.
Previously, Joshua’s thrilling 11th-round stoppage of former champion Wladimir Klitschko to defend the WBA, IBF and WBO titles at Wembley Stadium attracted 90,000 fans in April 2017.
Joshua has been one of — perhaps biggest — crowd-pullers in boxing at British venues. In 2018, 78,000 watched him stop Alexander Povetkin at Wembley and in the same year he attracted the same attendance to the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Super middleweights Carl Froch and George Groves were also involved in a big event at Wembley in 2014, when 80,000 saw Froch deliver an emphatic finish to their rematch. Ricky Hatton (junior welterweight and welterweight) and Joe Calzaghe (super middleweight) also pulled big crowds to outdoor stadiums in the United Kingdom.
Big crowds watched boxing in England before World War II and at least 90,000 turned up to see Len Harvey defend his British light-heavyweight title on points against Jock McAvoy at White City Stadium, London, on July 10, 1939. Harvey’s fourth scrap with McAvoy was a welcome — if brief — distraction from the start of war, less than two months away.
But there have been bigger attendances for boxing outside of the UK. The Jack Dempsey vs. Gene Tunney heavyweight fight attracted 120,557 to the Sesquicentennial Stadium, Philadelphia, on Sept. 23, 1926, a record for a paid crowd that stood for nearly 67 years until 132, 247 saw Mexican idol Julio Cesar Chavez against American Greg Haugen at the Azteca in Mexico City on Feb. 20, 1993.