Katie Taylor is set to become part of an historic boxing event in Wembley Stadium on April 29th. The Irish world amateur and Olympic champion, who turned professional last year, is expected to fight on the undercard of the heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko, which is on target to take place in front of a record breaking 90,000 fans.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has stepped in to ensure the fight for Joshua's IBF title and the vacant WBA Super and IBO Heavyweight crowns will be seen by what is a post-war record and capacity crowd.
Reaffirming his commitment to stage the biggest sporting events in London, boxing fan Khan used his influence to boost capacity for the fight by 10,000, after boxing promoter Eddie Hearn secured permission for 80,000 fans.
Hearn and his Matchroom team are now also promoting Taylor and her professional debut fight in the Wembley Arena last year was on the undercard of Joshua's bout with Eric Molina.
Following Taylor’s super-featherweight contest against Viviane Obenauf at the Manchester Arena last time out, Hearn said she would probably be on the undercard of Joshua in his next fight, which is the Wembley showdown with Klitscho.
Taylor was due to have her third professional fight on the card of middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin on St Patrick's weekend in Madison Square Gardens. However that idea has been scrapped. According to Hearn, Top Rank president Todd duBoef had issues with Taylor fighting the night following Michael Conlan's professional debut at the same venue.
The Wembley event, which will be broadcast around the world, will break the post-war British record for attendance at a boxing match, which was for Carl Froch and George Groves at Wembley in 2014. It will also equal the British record of 90,000 when Len Harvey fought Jock McAvoy at White City in London in 1939.
“I’m delighted that the capacity for Joshua vs Klitschko has been increased to 90,000 making it the biggest live gate of all time at the new Wembley stadium,” said Hearn.
“At the boxing writers’ dinner last year, Sadiq urged me to bring the biggest fights possible to the city and I’m delighted to have the biggest fight in British boxing history at Wembley Stadium on April 29th.”
