‘Joshua could resist multi-million pound bout against Povetkin’

Anthony Joshua will have the final say on a potential world title fight with Alexander Povetkin, despite plans for a multi-million pound bout in Russia.
The Russian heavyweight has been confirmed as the WBA’s mandatory challenger for Joshua, but must firstly overcome David Price on the same bill in Cardiff this Saturday night, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
Promoter Eddie Hearn is tentatively mapping out plans for Joshua ahead of his unification clash with Joseph Parker in the main event at the Principality Stadium, and insists he could tempt Povetkin back to Britain.
“Joshua will have to fight Povetkin at some point in 2018,” Hearn told Sky Sports.
“Everything is about money. But we can generate a lot of money in the UK.”
“They’ve made it clear they would want to fight [in the UK]. The funding and backing that was initially there, isn’t there anymore.”
Povetkin’s promoters, World of Boxing, was founded by Andrey Ryabinsky, a Russian entrepreneur.Vadim Kornilov, who now heads the promotion, told Sky Sports that a fight in Russia would be of similar importance to Joshua’s clash this weekend in Cardiff.
“I think it would be comparable,” he said. “[Wladimir] Klitschko was paid almost £20m to fight Povetkin so anything can be generated. This has that type of magnitude.
“It would, depending on the timing, fill up the new [81,000 seater] Luzhniki Stadium – a football stadium. That’s a location with enough magnitude for this type of fight.