"I received a call from Kalle Sauerland late afternoon, who informed me that Pulev had injured his shoulder and may be ruled out of the fight - this was later confirmed by his doctor," Hearn Confirmed..
Pulev 25-1 (13 Ko's) was the IBF mandatory challenger and according to the rules of that governing body, in this type of event, the next ranked contender numerically has to be offered the opportunity..
So with 70.000 tickets already sold for the bout at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Anthony Joshua now faces tough 36 year old French based Cameroonian, Carlos Takam 35-3-1 (27 Ko's.)
Takam, who once held the very lightly regarded WBF title has competed at the highest level, losing on the two most prominent occasions, to Alexander Povetkin in 2014, and to the now WBO champion Joseph Parker last year in a very close affair..
Takam has remained active since the Parker loss, boxing twice this year already, picking up the IBF intercontinental title with a 4th round stoppage of Marcin Rekowski in January then making swift work of Ivica Bacurin in 2, last June.
Hearn:
"When the Pulev fight was announced I made a deal with Takam's team to begin camp and be on standby for this fight."
"When I called them this evening they were overjoyed and good to go. It's a difficult position for AJ - having prepared meticulously for the style and height of Pulev, he now faces a completely different style and challenge in Takam.
"This hasn't happened in his career before but he is ready for all comers on 28 October."
Anthony is making the first defence of his unified titles that he won last April. His original mandatory Pulev was never a match that was going to set the world alight, Takam is a little more of an aggressive fighter who may make for better viewing. Pulev was allegedly offered Joshua numerous times throughout the last 3 years and always turned the bout down for a variety of reasons, I was always of the opinion that it wasn't a fight that the Bulgarian fancied..
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