Eddie Hearn, promoter for IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, is expecting to finalize a deal for a mandatory fight with Kubrat Pulev.

Pulev is the mandatory challenger under the IBF, while there is also a mandatory due to Oleksandr Usyk under the WBO.

There was some confusion over which mandatory was due first - and it has been determined that Pulev will be up first.

"Kubrat Pulev is the frontrunner," said Hearn to Sky Sports. "I think we've established that the IBF mandatory was called before the WBO mandatory. Pulev is the fight for me, and more importantly for the boss, AJ, he wants it here."

The first is practically a lock to take place on UK soil.

In 2019, Joshua fought in New York City in June and then held his second bout of the year in Saudi Arabia in December.

"He's boxed now in Saudi Arabia for his last fight, he's boxed in New York before that. For me, it's time to come home. The bad news is that Kubrat Pulev wants as much money as possible for this fight and he realises there's more money in Istanbul, or Saudi Arabia, or the Congo, or Nigeria, but AJ is going to call the shots," Hearn said.

"He may end up having to let the Pulev fight go, if he won't fight in the places that we'd like him to fight and that is in the UK. We're looking at dates at the end of May to the beginning of June for the Pulev fight. Everywhere is in play. Emirates Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur, The Olympic Stadium, we've also reached out to Twickenham as well.

"The Principality Stadium has got some dates for us, so in an ideal world, AJ's next fight will be Kubrat Pulev in London, but this is a far from an ideal world, particularly in the boxing game."