Anthony Joshua to earn less than half his initial fight purse for Kubrat Pulev fight after missing out on £8m gate fee

ANTHONY JOSHUA is set to earn less than half his initial purse for his fight with Kubrat Pulev after missing out on a monster £8million gate fee.

The British star, 31, and 39-year-old Bulgarian Pulev were originally set to meet at the 62,303-seater Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in June.

That would have seen AJ pocket £8m just in ticket sales.

However, the fight was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It was originally believed the fight would go ahead behind closed doors.

But the clash has been given the green light to host 1,000 fans at Wembley Arena this weekend.

Joshua will walk away with much less than he'd initially planned - but for the Brit, it will hopefully lead to a money-spinning heavyweight unification fight with Tyson Fury in 2021.

Should fans be allowed back for that fight, Joshua could stand to rake in another bumper sum.

Joshua took home a staggering £50m for his win over Andy Ruiz Jr last December in Saudi Arabia - doubling his career earnings.

Last month, promoter Eddie Hearn revealed he expected AJ to miss out on a huge sum of money against Pulev after Derek Chisora lost out on around £2m in gate fees for his loss against Oleksandr Usyk.

Having watched Usyk outpoint Chisora at the Wembley Arena last month, Hearn said: “We have the best bubble in boxing and elite sport is not part of lockdown.

“We can sustain it - but we want to be a profitable business.

“We lost what would have been a £2m gate at the O2 for this fight."