If it was entirely up to Eddie Hearn, the heavyweight title rematch between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk would take place in London, site of the first bout and Joshua’s hometown.

But according to the head of Matchroom Boxing in a recent interview, the fight may end up in a different part of the globe, depending on the site fee that comes up. Hearn said he has to consider the demands of Team Usyk, which has a much bigger say in negotiations this time around. Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) handily defeated Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) by unanimous decision last September in their fight at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Initially, there was talk that the rematch would take place either at Tottenham or at Wembley Stadium.

Hearn did not mention Saudi Arabia by name in the interview, but various reports recently have stated that the oil kingdom is a frontrunner to land the coveted fight. Hearn has experience taking a big fight to the Arabian peninsula. In 2019, he staged the rematch between Joshua and Andy Ruiz in Diriyah, where Joshua ended up regaining his heavyweight titles by unanimous decision.

“I think we have about 10 days roughly to an announcement (the fight). Sort of end of June, mid July are a couple of different dates we’ve got,” Hearn said in a recent interview with The DAZN Boxing Show. “As I’ve explained before this deal is a split with Usyk and his team, so obviously they want to maximize the revenue for this fight, and rightfully so.

“We’d like to do the fight in London but also understand that the money would be much less, so we continue to talk to Uysk’s team.”

The Joshua-Usyk rematch appeared to be off earlier this year when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Usyk, a Ukrainian national, returned home and enlisted with his country’s territorial defense squad. But several weeks later, in late March, Usyk announced that he intended to defend his heavyweight titles (WBA, WBO, IBF).

Hearn reiterated that the fight, despite the starts and stops and uncertainty regarding venue, date, and broadcaster, will “100%” go on as planned. A fight announcement is imminent, he added.

“I think you’re going to get an announcement in 10 days, two weeks,” Hearn said. “The fight’s on, fight’s happening. 100% the fight’s happening. We’ll give you the date and a venue in due course.”